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THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIEN- 
TIFIC CIRCLE. 
JFoun^c& in 187S. 

This volmne is ajyart of the course of home reading the 
essential features of luhich are: 

1. A Definite Course covering four years, and including 

History, Literattire, Art, Science, etc. {A reader may 
enroll for only one year.) No examinations. 

2. Specified Volumes approved by the counselors. Many of 

the books are specially prepared for the purpose, 

3. Allotment of Time. The reading is apportioned by the 

week and month. 

4. A Monthly Magazine, The Chautauquan, with ad- 

ditional readi)igs, notes, and geyieral literature. 

5. A Membership Book, containing suggestions for reading, 

review outlines, and other aid. 

6. Individual Readers, 710 matter how isolated, may have all 

the privileges. 

7. Local Circles may be formed by three or more me^nbers 

for mutual aid and encouragement. 

8. The Time Required is on an average forty minutes a day 

for nine months. 

9. Certificates are granted at the end of four years to all 
who complete the course. 

10. Advanced Courses, for co7itinued reading in special lines 

— History, Literature, etc. 

11. Pedagogical Course /o?- secular teachers. 

12. Young People's Reading Course, to stimulate the reading 

of good literature by the young. 
For all information concerniyig the C. L. S. C. address 

John H. Vincent, Buffalo, N. Y. 

THE REQUIRED LITERATURE FOR 1895-6. 

The Growth of the American Nation (illus- 
trated). H. P. Judson, Prol'essor of Political Sci- 
ence, University of Chicago fl.OO 

The Industrial Evolution of the United 
States (illustrated). Colonel Carroll D. Wright, 
United States Commissioner of Labor , . . 1.00 

Initial Studies in American Letters (with 
portraits). Henry A. Beers, Professor of English 
Literature, Yale University . , . . . 1.00 

Some First Steps in Human Progress (illus- 
trated). Frederick Starr, Professor of Anthropol- 
ogy, University of Chicago 1.00 

Thinking, Feeling, Doing (illustrated). E. W. 
Scripture, Director of the Psvchological Laboratory, 
Yale University . ." 1.00 

The Chautauquan (12 numbers, illustrated) . 2.00 




George Washington. 



Cbautauqua TReaDlncj Circle Xftcrature 



THE GROWTH 



OF THE 



AMERICAN NATION 



BY 



HARRY PRATT JUDSON, LL.D. 

Head Professor of Political Science in the University of Chicago 








FLOOD AND VINCENT 
Cfte ^f)autauqua--(<Eenturp ^xzi$ 

MEADVILLE PENNA 

150 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK 

1895 



Copyright, 1895 
By Flood & Vincent 



7 



i 



"tT-^i 



The C/iaii/anqiia-Ceiifiirv Press, JMeadville, Pa., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent. 



DEDICATED 

AS A TOKEN OF AFFECTION 

AND ESTEEM 

TO 

WILLIAM KEMP. 



The required books of the C. L. S. C. are recommended by a 
Council of six. It must, however, be understood that 
recommendation does not involve an approval by the ■Coun- 
cil, or by any member of it, of every principle or doctrine 
contained in the book recommended. 



PREFACE. 

In preparing so brief a sketch of the growth of the 
American nation it has of course been necessary to 
omit a multitude of details. In doing this it can hardly 
be hoped that the author has avoided the omission of 
some essentials. But the attempt has been to grasp all 
the cardinal facts in such way as to show clearly the 
orderly development of national life. The colonial 
period has been touched lightly, as that was merely 
preparatory. And the Civil War with its following- 
years has also been passed over briefly, as being yet too 
near the present for adequate historical treatment. It 
should also be pointed out that the somewhat topical 
plan followed implies an overlapping of some eras which 
results in apparent repetition. But this is meant to be 
merely the examination of the same subject matter in 
different lights. 

The author owes special acknowledgment to his wife, 
Rebecca A. Judson, for valuable suggestions in revising 
the proof 

The Utiiversity of Chicago, July, iSg^. 



CONTENTS. 

PART I.— EXPLORERS AND COLONISTS : 
1492-1763. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

L The New World 15 

IL The Original Settlements ... 25 
in. The Struggle for Dominion . . 37 

PART II. —THE COLONIES BECOME A NATION: 

1763-1789. 

IV. The Colonies After the French- 
Wars , . . . 55 

V. The Separation from England . 68 

VI. The Evolution of National Gov- 
ernment ...... 84 

PART III.— THE DOMINANCE OF FOREIGN 
RELATIONS. 

VH. The Organization of the Nation, 103 

VIII. Commerce and Neutrality . . . 116 

IX. Federalist Ideas 127 

X. Society Becomes Democratic . .138 

XL Jeffersonian Republicanism . . . 148 

XII. Jefferson's Foreign Policy . . . 161 

XIII. The National Republicans and 

Their War with England . . 171 

PART IV.— THE EPOCH OF PEACE AND SO- 
CIAL PROGRESS. 

XIV. The Era of Good Feeling . . . 1S9 
XV. The National Republicans . . . 200 



Contents. 



CHAPTER. ' PAGE. 

XVI. Local Life 212 

XVIL Andrew Jackson and Nullifica- 
tion ... 222 

XVin. The Panic of 1837 234 

XIX. The Whig Triumph 244 

XX. American Social Life 258 

PART v.— SLAVERY AND STATE RIGHTS. 

XXI. The Missouri Compromise .... 273 
XXII. The Compromise of 1850 .... 282 

XXIII. The Repeal of the Missouri Com- 

promise 295 

XXIV. Secession and Civil War .... 304 

PART VI.— THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF 
INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES. 

XXV. The Reconstructed Republic . . 321 
XXVI. A Second Era of Economic Prog- 
ress 332 

XXVII. Some Questions of the Day . . . 345 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

George Washington Frontispiece. 

PAGE. 

Henry Laurens 56 

Stocks 59 

Pillory 61 

" Westover, " a Colonial Mansion near Richmond, Va. . . 63 
Residence of the Washington Family and Birthplace of 

George W^ashington, Westmoreland Co., Va 66 

Old Dutch House at Kingston, N. Y 69 

The Old Senate House, Kingston, N. Y 73 

Reduced Facsimile of the Last Line of the Declaration of 
Independence, in Jefiferson's Handwriting, with the 

First Three Signatures 81 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia 85 

Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia 87 

Old South Church, Boston 94 

George Washington 104 

Bronze Statue of Alexander Hamilton, Brooklyn, N. Y. . 108 

John Adams 132 

Eli Whitney 143 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 146 

Thomas Jefferson 149 

Faneuil Hall, Boston 159 

Isaac Chauncey 173 

Stephen Decatur 176 

Oliver Hazard Perry 177 

Capture of the " Guerriere " by the " Constitution " . . . 179 

William Bainbridge 180 

James Madison 182 

James Monroe 191 

John Quincy Adams 201 

Robert Fulton 207 

Settler's Log Cabin 209 

The Erie Canal at Buffalo 217 

Andrew Jackson 223 

John C. Calhoun 231 



Illustrations. 



Henry Clay 244 

Daniel Webster 245 

William H. Seward 247 

Martin Van Buren 249 

William Henry Harrison 251 

John Tyler 255 

St. Paul's Chapel, New York 261 

Abraham Lincoln 272 

State Capitol Building, Raleigh, North Carolina 279 

James Knox Polk 287 

Winfield Scott 289 

Zachary Taylor 291 

Millard Fillmore 293 

An Emigrant Wagon 294 

A Modern Ocean Steamer 296 

The " De Witt Clinton" Engine and Coaches 298 

The Fastest Regular Train in the World, 1891 300 

Franklin Pierce 302 

James Buchanan 304 

A Typical Indian Chief 305 

Executive Mansion (White House), Washington, D. C. . 307 

Jefferson Davis 309 

State Capitol Building, Richmond, \'a 311 

Reduced Facsimile of a Part of the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation 314 

The Lee Mansion, Arlington, Va 317 

Andrew Johnson 322 

Robert E. Lee 323 

Ulysses S. Grant 326 

Action between the " Merrimac " and the "Monitor " . . 32S 

Samuel J. Tilden 329 

Rutherford B. Hayes 330 

James A. Garfield ^iZci 

Chester A. Arthur 335 

James G. Blaine 337 

Grover Cleveland 338 

Benjamin Harrison 339 

A Grain Elevator in Chicago 341 

Statue of Henry W. Grady, Atlanta, Ga 343 

The Brooklyn Bridge 353 

The United States Capitol at Washington 355 



MAPS. 

The United States of America Front lining pages. 

PAGE. 

Toscanelli's Map, 1474 19 

The Boundary Line drawn by King; James's Charter of 

1609 between his Northern and his Southern Land 

Grants 30 

The Territory of the Present United States during the 

French-Indian Wars, 1755-1763 46 

The Territory of the Present United States, 1763 .... 49 

English Colonies, 1763 67 

Boundaries of the United States, Canada, and the Spanish 

Possessions, 1782 90 

United States in 1790 112 

United States in 1800 136 

The Territory of the Present United States, 1801 .... 154 
The Territory of the Present United States, 1803 . . . . 158 

United States in 1810 172 

United States in 1820 199 

United States in 1821 217 

United States in 1830 227 

United States in 1840 253 

The Territory of the Present United States, 1S46 .... 284 
The Territory of the Present United States after the Me.xi- 

can War 290 

Civil War, 1861-1865 312 

Map showing Territory acquired by the United States from 

1783 to 1895 Eiid lining pages. 



PART I. 
EXPLORERS AND COLONISTS. 

1492-1763. 



THE 
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN NATION. 

PART I-EXPLORERS AND COLONISTS. 
1492-1763. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE NEW WORLD. 

References. — Bancroft : History of the United States; Fiske: 
The Discovery of America ; Winsor : Christopher Colimibus ; 
Winsor : Narrative and Critical History of America. 

One of the most striking facts of history is the growth The rise of a 
on the American continent in the last three hundred "^^p°^"- 
years of a nation which now ranks among the great 
powers of the world. When the sixteenth century 
ended, above the latitudes of the sparse Spanish settle- 
ments in Florida and Mexico there was not a European 
in North America. The vast continent was a wilder- 
ness, whose only denizens were the wild beast and the 
Indian savage. To-day there are over sixty millions of 
European people dwelling between the Gulf of Mexico 
and the Great Lakes, all using the English tongue, or- 
ganized in political communities under English ideas of 
law and liberty, employing the latest resources of modern 
civilization, and together forming an independent and 
powerful nation. 

The series of events which has created this new home y^^g^ica a part 
for the restless Aryans is no mere episode in the world's development^ 
history. Americans can make no greater mistake than 



i6 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Meaning of the 
modern age. 



The fifteenth 
century. 



to suppose that the development of their country has 
been isolated from the forces of European progress. In 
fact, American history has been at every point logically 
and closely connected with the general movement of 
social evolution on the other side of the ocean. If this 
was especially obvious during the period of colonial de- 
pendence, it has been no less marked, though naturally 
in some different forms, since the colonies became 
free. 

The meaning of the four centuries which are just 
closing may certainly be taken to be this — the occupa- 
tion of the world by the advancing civilization of 
Europe. 

Look at the world to-day, and what do we see? 
Everywhere European ideas dominant, European nations 
in control, European capital and energy developing the 
resources of every land. The great Asiatic empires 
have crumbled. But two remain, and of these, China 
yields to European dictation, and Japan has frankly ac- 
cepted the whole system of European thought and 
action. 

All this, which seems to us such a matter of course, 
was not the case in the fifteenth century. Then Christen- 
dom — which is but another name for the civilization of 
modern Europe — was a mere island in an ocean of hos- 
tile forces. A great Asiatic empire, Turkey, reached 
nearly to the heart of Europe in the East. The re- 
mains of another great Asiatic monarchy, that of the 
Moors, yet lingered in Spain. And Turk and Moor 
alike seemed to come of a race as virile as the best in 
Europe, and as likely to win the empire of the world. 

Again, Christendom was rent in twain. The schism 
between the Eastern and Western Churches — the Greek 
and the Latin — represented a division in sentiment as 



The New JJor/d. 17 



utter as that between the cross and the crescent. It was 
not a united Europe which faced the torrent of Asiatic 
conquest, but a Europe divided, discordant, mutually 
jealous. And so the old Greek Empire was overrun, 
and the Turkish horsemen raided to the heart of Ger- 
many with impunity. 

Moreover, Europe had no hold in any other land. Europe 

' . -^ . isolated. 

America was unknown. Africa was merely a strip of 
Mohammedan piracy along the Mediterranean. Asia, 
the home of vast empires and of oriental wealth which 
was proverbial, was just the source of danger. 

So on all sides was Europe beset. It was, as has been 
said, a lonely island of occidental ideas. All it could 
do, apparently, was to hold its own against the waves 
which beat on it from all sides. 

The process by which this weak and isolated civiliza- 
tion has become dominant in the world, is the story of 
modern life. It has been wrought by the action of three 
forces, commerce, colonization, philanthropy. The 
last has been especially potent in the present century. 
The other two sufficed to spread European power 
throughout the world. 

The foundation of power is material wealth, and that commerce. 
is won by trade. The richest source of the merchandise 
which all men desired — silks, precious stones, spices — 
in the Middle Ages was the far East. These valuable 
and compact commodities were transported across Asia 
by caravan, or up the Red Sea to Egypt, and thus 
reached the Mediterranean. The traffic in oriental 
products enriched the merchants of Venice and Genoa, 
and greatly developed the shipping of those enterprising 
republics. 

But no such trade was possible without the consent of 
the Turkish Mohammedans, who held all Western Asia 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Fall of Constan- 
tinople, A. D. 
1453- 



African 
voyages. 



Da Gama 
reaches India, 



Columbus. 



This day was 
Fridav. 



and Egypt as well. After the capture of Constantinople 
by Mahomet II., the commercial situation in the Medi- 
terranean became very grave, and thoughtful minds 
among Christian nations were turned to the possibility 
of finding some other route to the Indies. Naturally 
the first efforts were directed to the western coast of 
Africa, and voyage after voyage was made in the effort to 
sail around that continent. The final success did not come 
till 1498, when Vasco da Gama passed the cape which 
Diaz had discovered in i486, and which had been well 
called Boa Esperanga (Good Hope), and then, pressing 
on, at last reached India. Thus the long-sought route 
to the East was found, and the European oriental traffic 
was no longer dependent on the whims of the Turks. 

But while successive voyagers were pushing farther and 
farther along the inhospitable coast of Africa, longing 
eyes began to be directed to the West. 

The rotundity of the earth was not for the first time 
presented to the world by Christopher Columbus. But 
that venturesome sailor became thoroughly convinced of 
the fiict and was sure that in it lay a solution of the 
problem of the route to the Indies. If by sailing west 
he could reach directly the rich realms from which came 
the treasures of the East, not only would the as yet un- 
known dangers of Southern Africa be avoided, but 
Western Europe would be able at once to seize the 
princely place so long held by the Italians. 

It was not easy for Columbus to get a hearing, much 
less to find backers for what seemed to most people a 
hare-brained adventure. But his eloquence and persist- 
ence at last won the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella, the 
Spanish sovereigns, and accordingly on the 3d of 
August, 1492, he set sail from Palos with a squadron of 
three small vessels. 



The Nezv World. 



19 



Columbus was laboring under two misapprehensions, piske, i., 377 
He thought that the Atlantic was not more than about "^^^^ 
2, 500 miles wide, and that on its further margin he would ^'stakes of 

^ "-' Columbus. 

come at once to Japan. In fact, the length of his voy- 
age from the time he lost sight of the land of the Canary 
Islands until he sighted the Bahamas was about 3,200 
miles. And the distance from the Canaries to Japan is 
12,000 miles, avast continent and a wide ocean, both 
undreamed bv Columbus, intervening between that realm 




and the Atlantic. If his sailors had had any notion of 
actual distances, they would doubtless have returned to 
Spain in a panic, leaving the voyage unfinished. 

On the i2th of October, 1492, the eyes of a European This would be 

. . October 21 by 

first rested on the sou of America. This was one of the the reformed 

Bahama Islands. But Columbus had no idea that he 

had found a new world. To the day of his death he 

thought that he had merely discovered the western route The discovery. 

to Asia. The islands among which he cruised in that 

sunny October four centuries ago he supposed to be the 



20 The Gt^otc'th of the American Nation. 



archipelago of Spice Islands, of which Marco Polo told 
"The Indies." gQ niany stories. To him it was all " the Indies." The 
brown natives he called "Indians." And all that re- 
mained was to sail on to China to find the great store of 
precious metals and precious stones, of silks and spices, 
with which the Orient teemed — to plant the cross of the 
Catholic Church and the banner of Spain on the verge 
of Asia. 

Poor Columbus. His name is immortal as the great 
discoverer. And yet he never found what he sought. 
He never knew what it was that he did find. He went 
to his grave embittered by disappointment and in- 
gratitude. And by the utter irony of fate the name be- 
stowed on the New World which he had given to Castile 
and Leon was that of a minor traveler who had no share 
in the original discovery. America was found by one 
accident and was named by another.* 

Subsequent voyages disclosed the truth that America 
was a new continent, and that the long-sought East In- 
dies lay far beyond. Meanwhile the successful voyage 
7oute.^^'^™ of Da Gama opened the route by the Cape of Good 
Hope, and so the importance of the western passage 
faded away. To be sure, attempts to find a northwest 
and a southwest passage around America did not cease, 
and the latter in the end was discovered. Magellan, 
that prince of fearless navigators, in 1520 with a Spanish 
squadron sailed through the straits which bear his name 
into the wide Pacific. But the eastern route was the 
shorter, and the Portuguese, who had found it, soon 
opened a lucrative commerce with the Indies. And 
other nations were not slow to follow their example. 

* Americus Vespucius described in a published letter a voyage in which he 
saw a continent which he declared must be a new world. It was the coast of 
Brazil. The voyage was in 1501. From him the name "America " was given 
to this continent, without knowledge that it extended north of the equator. 



The New World. 



Europe at last was independent of the Mediterranean 
and of the Turks. And from that day the Itahan re- 
publics began to decay. 

But the New World had been found to possess sources Resources of 
of wealth of its own. The spices and silks of the East 
were wanting, to be sure. There were no great hives of 
industry like China to produce rare fabrics. However, 
gold and silver were not lacking, and in the conquest of 
Mexico and Peru the Spaniards won vast wealth in those 
metals. And the more rugged northern regions abounded 
in fish on the coasts and furs in the interior, both of which ^'^^ P' ^^• 
became the material of profitable commerce. 

The Spaniards made their first settlements in the West 
India Islands, and occupied the mainland from Florida 
to the southern extremity of South America. Farther 
north they did not care to go, as the luxuriant tropics 
were more to their taste, both in climate and riches. 
But they originally claimed the whole western world. 
The discovery of Columbus was the basis of their title, 
and it was made valid, in their eyes, by the action of the 
pope. The exploration and occupation of new lands thus 
far had been made only by Spain and Portugal, and there 
was danger, if they should proceed unchecked, that these i>OTiugai. 
two nations would come into collision with rival claims. 
The pope not only considered himself the proper arbiter of 
disputes among Christian peoples, but was especially quali- 
fied to settle this question, because islands of the sea and 
heathen lands were claimed by the church as the peculiar 
appanage of the successor of St. Peter. In fact, as early 
as 1442, Pope Eugenius IV. had granted to the crown of 
Portugal all the heathen lands which might be discovered 
by voyaging along the coasts of Africa, including even 
the Indies. It was evident that if Columbus had pointed 
out to Spain a new way to these same Indies the two 



22 



The Gro2vth of the American Nation. 



The pope 
divides the 
world. 



June 24, 1497. 
It is possible 
that Vespucius 
reached the 
coast of Hon- 
duras June 21, 
1497. Fiske, 
II., 87, note. 

1504. 



Colonization. 



powers would reach the goal from opposite directions, 
with disastrous consequences. Accordingly, in 1493 
Pope Alexander VI. granted to Spain all the lands she 
might discover in the western seas, and fixed the line of 
demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese possessions 
as a meridian a hundred leagues west of the Azores. In 
the following year a treaty between Spain and Portugal 
moved this line two hundred seventy leagues farther 
west. 

This line of 1494 resulted in the claim of Spain to all 
the western continent except the eastern portion of South 
America, which was afterwards found to be cut off by the 
meridian in question, and it was this last fact which led 
to the settlement of Brazil by the Portuguese. 

But the other maritime nations were not disposed to 
accept this partition of the world as altogether conclu- 
sive. An Englishman, John Cabot, was the first Euro- 
pean to sight the mainland of North America, and French 
fishermen began to frequent the banks of Newfoundland 
in the early years of the sixteenth century. It was not, 
however, for more'than a hundred years after the voyage 
of Columbus that either of these nations made permanent 
settlements in the New World. 

The Spaniards who first came to America had no 
thought of making a home there. They meant to get a 
fortune as soon as practicable and to return to Spain for 
its enjoyment, but in many cases the fortune was slow in 
coming, and so the years slipped by without the return 
home. Presently not a few people came over to the 
New World who had not made a success of life in the 
Old, and to whom one place was quite as good as an- 
other. Then there were priests eager for missionary tri- 
umphs, royal officials charged with administrative and 
military duties, and commercial agents whose residence 



The New World. 23 



abroad was necessary to the due transaction of their busi- 
ness. In these ways not many years passed before there 
was a considerable European population resident in the 
various Spanish ports. 

The motives of English and French settlement were 
different from those of the Spaniards rather in detail than French and 

Ensrlisli settle- 

in principle. Material welfare was the primary purpose ments. 
of emigration. But there was little hope of finding the 
precious metals on the coasts north of Florida, and the 
colonists had to be content with the returns of agricul- 
ture, fisheries, furs, and lumber. These did not offer 
the sudden and great fortunes to be had from mines of 
gold and silver, and required a longer residence for the 
accumulation of a competence. Accordingly, these col- 
onies were from the first more likely to draw permanent 
settlers. And for the same reason they were apt to at- 
tract a more rugged element from the home communities. 
The French occupied the St. Lawrence Valley, while the 
English formed a series of colonies along the Atlantic 
coast. 

But the seventeenth century, which witnessed the 
foundation of the English colonies in America, was sensfonsin '^' 
marked in England by fierce religious dissensions, which "^ ^" 
at last led to civil war. In the course of these quarrels 
adherents of different parties were at one time triumphant 
and at another time overcome. And the defeated, de- 
spairing of their cause at home, in many cases abandoned 
their country for one in which they could work out their 
ideas without interference. In this way Puritan colonies 
were formed in New England (as the exiles fondly called 
their transatlantic home), and Roman Catholics settled 
Maryland. The Friends (.Quakers) had no share in 
the wars, but they were in little favor in England, and so 
made a settlement for their faith in Pennsylvania. 



24 



The Growth of the American N^ation. 



Growth of the 
colonies. 



Importance 
of colonies 
learned. 



The French colonists were sturdy Roman Cathohcs, 
and from the first their priests and monks hibored ear- 
nestly to convert the Indians, with some success. 

From these various motives the colonies attracted num- 
bers of immigrants and gradually became reasonably 
strong and prosperous. And by the time that this fact was 
evident, it also became clear that they were a source 
of wealth to the mother-country. The colonial products 
— furs, timber, dried fish, tobacco — were sent home, and 
in return the colonists afforded a steadily increasing mar- 
ket for manufactured articles. The colonies also were 
found a convenient social safety-valve. As has been 
shown, considerable numbers of refractory religious sec- 
taries were comfortably got out of the way. And there 
was also afforded by emigration an outlet for uneasy and 
enterprising spirits who were not satisfied with the hum- 
drum of settled life, for the shiftless ne' er-do-wells who 
could not make their condition worse, for younger sons 
who had their own way to make, for clergymen and 
courtiers for whom it was not convenient to provide at 
home. 

In all these ways Europe gradually learned that the 
new lands were more than mere mines or sources of silk 
and spices. They were a valuable outlet for enterprise, 
and it was in many ways profitable for European people 
to settle permanently beyond seas. Thus trade led to 
discovery, and discovery to colonization. And so a be- 
ginning was made of the European conquest of the 
world, which the twentieth century bids fair to see com- 
pleted in Africa and Asia. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS. 

References. — Bancroft and Fiske ; Shaler : The Ciiifed 
States of America. 

The first land across the Atlantic reached by Colum- 
bus was one of the Bahama Islands, and from that point 
he naturally was led to the West Indies. Later Spanish The Spaniards 
voyag^ers from these islands followed rumors of gold, and tropics. 
so Mexico, Central America, and South America came 
gradually to be disclosed and occupied. Of the country 
toward the north little heed was taken. In 1565, to be 
sure, a settlement was made at St. Augustine, in Florida. 
But practically the whole Spanish attention and energy 
were taken up by the rich tropics. Thus it came about 
that the temperate parts of North America were neg- 
lected for more than a century, and by that time other 
nations were ready for the task of colonization. 

The successful voyage of Da Gama in 1498 was fol- „, ^ . 

' * ^^ The Portuguese 

lowed up by the Portuguese with great energy. They '" the East. 

held firmly to their right, under Pope Alexander's bull, 

to a monopoly of trade with the East by way of the 

Cape of Good Hope. And for a century their power in 

Asia and its islands was practically unchallenged. But 

the latter part of the sixteenth century witnessed the 

growth of a great maritime power in Holland. And the ^^^^^ ^^^ 

fearless Dutch navigators, fearing neither pope nor Portu- I'sh, and 

o ' o 11 1< rench. 

guese, pushed into the eastern seas and by force of arms 
dispossessed their rivals of the supremacy. Mean- 

25 



26 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



The land 
adapted to 
colonization. 



The extreme 
North unfit for 
settlement. 



while France and England had slowly become aroused 
to the wealth which lay beyond the seas, and early in 
the seventeenth century both powers began to establish 
commercial agencies in the East Indies and to send col- 
onists to America. Thus the Spanish and Portuguese 
monopolies were at the same time disregarded by eager 
and vigorous competitors. 

The seventeenth century, then, witnessed the occupa- 
tion of the temperate region of the North American At- 
lantic coast by the French and English, with minor set- 
tlements by the Dutch and the Swedes. 

The land which was colonized by these powers was 
peculiarly adapted to become the home of a strong peo- 
ple. From the Allegheny Mountains to the sea there 
were great forests of noble timber, abundance of streams, 
and excellent harbors on the coast. The climate, unlike 
that of Africa, or of India, was agreeable and salubri- 
ous. The rainfall was ample for the support of vegeta- 
tion, without descending in the tropical floods which are 
so destructive near the equator. The regularly recur- 
ring winters brought an invigorating frost. In nineteen 
twentieths of North America, in fact, the winter tempera- 
ture is that of freezing, and snow is a familiar thing in 
four fifths of the continent. South America, on the 
other hand, is essentially tropical, not more than a tenth 
of it being subject to snow. And the tropical and even 
subtropical parts of America were in the hands of the 
Spaniards. But there was a wide stretch of country 
north of the Spanish possessions, and altogether suit- 
able for habitation. The northern quarter of North 
America has a climate so bleak as to be unfit for agri- 
culture. And even the hardiest race can accomplish 
little under so arduous surroundings. Certainly no peo- 
ple in Europe have shown more vigor than the Scandi- 



The Orio-Jnal Settlements. 



27 



navians. Yet their settlements in Iceland and Greenland 
have made little impression on the world's history, while 
the Scandinavians in France and England were a pow- 
erful element in the development of those countries. 
But from the St. Lawrence to Florida the colonists 
found a climate and soil highly suitable for agriculture. 
And not only was agriculture possible. It was easy to 
practice iust about the same kind of industries to which The temperate 

^ _ _ regions suited 

the immigrants were accustomed at home. The same to Europeans, 
crops would grow in the fields. The same animals would 
thrive. The same trees and flowers and fruits sur- 
rounded the settlers. And so the difficulties of adjusting 
one's self to new conditions of life were greatly lessened. 
The early settlements found certain other great advan- 
tages. There were abundant water-powers in the numer- 
ous streams descending from the Alleghenies. There 
was great plenty of timber as material for ships and 
houses. And some of the peculiar products of the New 
World were especially adapted to the use of pioneers. 
Maize, or Indian corn, would readily grow in the rude com. 
clearings, and yielded a much larger crop in proportion 
than the smaller grains. It afforded meal for the 
planter's hoe-cake, or mush, and at the same time 
provided food for the inevitable swine. Corn meal 
and pork were the staff of life in the colonies. Tobacco, Tobacco, 
too, first seen by the companions of Columbus, had be- 
come an article of general use in Europe, and its 
cultivation in the southern colonies insured a valu- 
able article of export. It is surprising how rapidly 
these two distinctively American plants, tobacco and 
the potato, had become almost a necessary of life to 
people who, before the time of Columbus, had never 
heard of them. It is related that Sir Henry Mor- 
gan, an English rover, having returned from America, 



Potatoes. 



28 The Growth of the Americmi Natio?i. 

brought the habit of smoking, and his servant on first 
discovering his master with volumes of smoke rolling 
from the mouth, in great alarm dashed over him a pail- 
ful of water to put out the fire. The new plant was at 
first thought to have extraordinary medicinal properties. 
But its use had so great a fascination that a few years 
sufficed to "make all men kin" in the queer amuse- 
ment of sucking tobacco smoke into the mouth and 
sedately blowing it out again. 

Potatoes, "battatas" they were first called, were found 
by the Spaniards in Peru, and sent to Spain. From that 
country the new plant spread throughout Europe. Its 
use increased slowly, however, and it is only for about 
the last hundred years that it has come to be a common 
necessity. Sweet potatoes were found in Virginia by the 
early English settlers. But the common potato is often 
called, oddly enough, the "Irish" potato, although, as 
has been said, it is of South American origin. 
The "Indians." The native inhabitants of the Americas kept with 
Europeans the mistaken name of " Indians," which thus 
embalms the stubborn error of Columbus. They were 
savages, to be sure, in most of the continent. In Mexico 
and Peru they had reached a considerable advancement 
in the arts. But this had not been accompanied by suf- 
ficient military development to resist the superior de- 
structive power of the Spaniards, and so the wealth of 
those interesting American civilizations served only as 
incentives to their ruin. The Indians with whom the 
English and French settlers came in contact were rela- 
tively few in numbers, had not advanced beyond the 
Stone Age in the arts, were generally nomadic hunters, 
and could offer no serious resistance to settlement by a 
superior race. The French priests had some success in 
converting the Indians to Christianity. But the efforts 



The Original Settlements. 



29 



of English missionaries had little effect. And before 

Enelish fire-water, Eno-lish gunpowder, and English Disappearance 

*' . . * of the aborigi- 

chicanery the aborigines gradually melted away. It has "es. 
been said, graphically but with not a little truth, that the 
Dutch mode of dealing with the Indian was to buy Man- 
hattan Island from him for $24 and then cheat him out 
of the price, while the New England method was to 
shoot the savage and then take his land. In either way 
or all ways the result was the same. The natives of the 
great continent could ofter no effectual resistance to 
European power. And however much we may sympa- 
thize with the dispossessed and often ill-treated Indian, 
we must admit that a vastly higher type of life has taken 
his place. The world belongs to civilization. 

The first English colony on the American coast was English settle- 
that at Jamestown, in Virginia. And its immediate cause '"™ ''^ 
was the fact that in England there was at that time a sur- Virginia, 1607. 
plus of unemployed people. Times were hard. There 
were many soldiers whom the peace left idle, and changes 
in methods of agriculture had thrown thousands of farm 
laborers out of work. To provide an outlet for these 
unfortunate people, and at the same time to afford an 
opening for capital and enterprise. King James I. was 
induced to grant charters to two companies for the set- 
tlement of "Virginia." The English king claimed all 
of America as far south as the Spanish settlements, on 
the ground of Cabot's discovery. An unsuccessful at- 
tempt had been made to plant a colony during the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth, and in her honor (she asserted 
herself proud to be called the virgin queen) the whole 
country was called Virginia. 

The London Company, which had the southern part The London 
of Virginia, sent out an expedition at the beginning of °™^ "^" 
1607. The emigrants entered the waters which they 



30 



The Groivth of the American Nation. 



From Hampton Called Hampton Roads, sailed up a river which they 
favorite resi- named the James, in honor of their king-, and laid the 
james.° '"^ foundations of a town which for the same reason they 




The first Eng- called Tamestown. The early settlers had a hard strue- 

lish settlement. • i i ,• • r i • i-- 

gle With the rude conditions of their new hie, and at one 
time actually embarked in ships for the abandonment of 



The Original Settlements. 31 

their enterprise. However, such succors came from home 
as induced them to perse\'ere, and gradually the colony 
became established. A large influence in its success was 
the cultivation of tobacco, for which the soil proved character of 

the colony. 

peculiarly adapted. This was a crop for which Europe 
afforded a ready market. The fact that this plant so 
early became a staple had some striking effects. The 
colonists became j^lanters, living on wide plantations, 
their homes remote one from another. And as early as 
1 61 9 the sale of a few negroes to the planters from a 
Dutch ship which chanced to put into Virginia waters 
showed how to supply the lack of labor to cultivate the 
new crop. Thus it came about that negro slavery was 
introduced into English America. The unemployed in 
England seemed to have no great desire to cross the 
ocean in search of work. Some gentlemen of good 
family but slender fortune came over, a few poor people 
unable to pay for their passage bound themselves to serve 
for a stipulated time in order to get across the ocean. 
Not a few vagabonds were kidnapped from the London 
streets. In 1685 the rebels who joined Monmouth's In- 
surrection were sent to America and sold as bound serv- 
ants. But negroes proved the most profitable sort of 
labor. 

The Virginia colony, in accordance with the express 
desire of King James I., had the Established Episcopal 
Church of England recognized as the sole lawful form of 
religion. 

In 1634, however, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic Maryland, 1634. 
gentleman, was allowed by King Charles I. to make a 
settlement on the shores of Chesapeake Bay for the ben- 
efit of English people of his faith. This new colony was 
called Maryland, from the queen, Henrietta Maria. 
Its land was properly included in that granted to Vir- 



32 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



ginia, and this led to some dissension, but Maryland 
continued to grow. Its chief city was named in honor 
of the founder. Religious liberty was one of the cardinal 
principles of this colony, an enlightened policy which 
was in advance of the age. 

The first settlement in the Carolinas was made in 1670. 
King Charles II. was not very scrupulous in keeping to 
the grant his grandfather had made to Virginia, and in 
1663 a little ring of royal favorites secured from the king 
the grant of a large parcel of land, being all lying between 
the present states of Virginia and Florida. The mana- 
gers of this company were wise enough to follow the 
Maryland policy of religious liberty, and thus attracted 
to their colony many Huguenots, who had been expelled 
from France on account of their Protestant faith. ' ' Caro- 
lina" and "Charleston" commemorate the name of the 
worthless king who made the land grant. 

Some sixty years later a slice was taken from this 
grant in turn by King George II., who made a gift of its 
southern portion to an English benevolent association. 
These good men sought to plant a colony for the benefit 
of bankrupts, who in that day were imprisoned until they 
should pay their debts. If they could not pay at all they 
were left in prison indefinitely. The colony afterwards 
offered inducements for other discontented but worthy 
people, Germans and Scotchmen, and in the main fol- 
lowed a liberal policy. 

Thus was completed the settlement of the southern 
group of English colonies. All were formed under grants 
from the crown, in each case the name of the colony bear- 
ing witness to colonial loyalty. Maryland had a religious 
motive, Georgia was humanitarian. All, however, sought 
the material betterment of the immigrants, and in each of 
them negro sla^'es were an important element. Ogle- 



The Original Settlements. 



thorpe in Georgia tried at first to keep out the negroes. 
He also tried to prevent the importation of rum and the 
immigration of Roman CathoHcs. But antislavery and 
prohibition pro^'ed unsuited to the times and soon had to 
be abandoned, and rehgious intolerance could not last 
always. The southern colonies also had many descend- 
ants of proud English families, and were essentially aris- 
tocratic in the structure of society and government. 

The second company to which James I. granted "Vir- New England. 
ginia ' ' was called the Plymouth Company, and had the compan'^°"' 
northern part of the continent. But the first settlement 
within their domain was made without their knowledge 
or consent. 

The English Reformation in the sixteenth century had The Pilgrims, 
resulted in the separation of the Church of England from 
that of Rome. The ritual was modified and made Eng- 
lish, and some Roman Catholic doctrines were discarded. 
But there grew up in the last years of the century a large 
party who believed that the Reformation had not gone 
far enough and that the church still needed purifying 
from what they held to be essentially Roman Catholic 
practices. But there was a group still more advanced 
than the Puritans. These people, Separatists we may 
call them, held that they should withdraw from the state 
church altogether, and worship after their own con- 
science. Being held sharply accountable to the law for 
these practices, many of the Separatists left England and 
setded in Holland. But they did not wish to bring up 
their children in this foreign land, and so a number of 
them determined to emigrate to America, where they 
hoped to found an English colony in which they might 
worship God without molestation. Accordingly they 
embarked for England, and thence from the port of '^^o. 
Plymouth sailed in the litde ship Mayfiozvcr for the New 



34 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



World. On the 21st of December, 1620, they effected 
a landing and made a settlement which they called 
Plymouth. They had no distinct permission to make a 
colony, but they were let alone. They managed their 
own government as a pure democracy, and under the 
most cruel hardships persisted until finally they suc- 
ceeded in making themselves comfortable homes. This 
beginning of New England was made on a rugged coast 
in a bleak winter and by a handful of poor people. But 
the foundation was laid in free self-government and 
sincere religion. 

In 1629 a Puritan colony was established at Salem. 
In the following year a large migration of Puritans oc- 
curred, and their settlement was made at the spot which 
they called Boston. The times in England were not 
propitious for Puritans. Conformity to the established 
church was enforced by law, and thousands of those 
stern reformers, despairing of victory at home, cast in 
their lot with the fugitives beyond the ocean. 

These Puritans did not believe in religious liberty. 
Few did in those days. They came to New England to 
worship as they desired. They did not wish any inter- 
ference with their ideas. Attendance at church and tax- 
ation for the support of religion were compulsory. 
Those who could not conform were sent away. But the 
flower of English puritanism was certainly represented 
in Massachusetts. Many were from the English univer- 
sities. And one of the first acts of these colonists in 
their wilderness was to found the school which has grown 
to be Harvard University. 

Roger Williams was a young clergyman who did not 
believe in compulsory religion. Accordingly he was 
banished from the colony and took refuge among the 
Indians. Being joined by a few adherents he laid the 



The Original Settlements. 35 

foundations of a new colony of which rehgious liberty 
was the corner-stone. His settlement he called Provi- 
dence. The religious liberty of Maryland was extended 
to all Christians. That of the Providence plantation 
had no limit. The bulk of the early settlers were Bap- 
tists, who were driven from the other colonies as pestilent 
sectaries. But Jews, Roman Catholics, even men with 
no religion, were free to settle with them. A similar set- 
tlement was made on Rhode Island, in the Narragansett 
Bay. 

The rich valley of the Connecticut River was soon 

1 1 1 • r 1 A 1 • Connecticut, 

made the object of settlement. At about the same tmie 1633- 
that Providence was founded, emigrants from Massachu- 
setts Bay pushed westward through the woods, and be- 
gan se\'eral towns — Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, 
Saybrook. In 1638 a settlement was made at New 
Haven. These last good people adopted the Bible as 
their code of government. The people of Hartford and 
the neighboring towns met in 1639 and formed the first 
written constitution of America. It was more liberal 
than that of Massachusetts Bay, in that suffrage was not 
confined to church members. 

While these stalwart Puritans were establishing a safe ^, 

■^ New Hamp- 

home for their churches in the southern part of New shire, 1623. 
England, a colony was formed north of them on quite a 
different basis. Two English courtiers secured from the 
corporation which had the monopoly of American land 
north of Virginia, title to the tract of land including the 
present states of New Hampshire and Maine. Here 
settlements were made as early as 1623, for the strictly 
commercial purposes of fishing and fur trading. 

The established church in England saw to it that laws 
were enforced against all who dissented from it. These 
were the Puritans, who settled in Massachusetts Bay and 



36 



77/1? Growth of the American Nation. 



'Dissenters." 



Pennsylvania, 

1681. 



The northern 
colonies. 



Connecticut ; the Separatists, one branch of whom took 
refuge at Plymouth, and another branch, the Baptists, at 
Providence ; and the Friends, or Quakers. These last 
sectaries were peculiarly obnoxious both in England and 
America. Even the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay im- 
prisoned and banished them, and in one case hanged 
five of them. But the Quakers had a friend at court in 
the person of William Penn. His father was an admiral 
in the British navy and a member of the navy board. 
King Charles II. owed the admiral a debt which he found 
it convenient to pay by settling on the younger Penn a 
tract of wild land in America. And here the Quaker 
leader brought a colony of his people and founded the 
city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. Peace, charity, 
freedom, justice, were the fourfold foundation of Penn's 
colony. And as the Friends were an industrious and 
thrifty people, the colony grew steadily stronger. 

Thus with the single exception of New Hampshire the 
northern English colonies were founded principally for a 
religious purpose. Maryland was the only southern 
colony of which that was true. The northern colonies, 
especially in New England, were democratic. The town- 
meeting was the unit of government. And they were 
all in sympathy with the movement in church and state 
in England which culminated in the overthrow of royalty 
and the triumph of the Commonwealth and of Cromwell. 

Thus in little more than a hundred years the English 
gained a firm footing on the Atlantic seaboard of North 
America. Their colonies were scattered along more 
than two thousand miles of coast. They were diverse 
in origin and character and purpose. They were not 
directly connected in government, but they were alike 
in being thoroughly English. And that implied that in 
all there was the widest scope for individual initiative. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION. 

References. — Bancroft and Fiske ; W'insor's Narrative atid 
Critical History ; Parkman's Works ; Seeley's Ttie Expan- 
sion of England, \o\. II. 

The monopoly of Spain and Portugfal in the trade 

. -^ ^ ^ The Spaniards 

and colonization of the East and of the New World was and Portuguese 

find rivals. 

fairly effective for about a century after the time of 
Columbus and Da Gama. But by the end of the six- 
teenth century other nations were ready to dispute the 
prize. By that time the Protestant Reformation had 
broken from the pope all the north of Europe. The 
Scandinavians, the English, and the Dutch were fear- 
less navigators as well as fierce Protestants, and the last 
especially in the course of their savage wars with the 
Iberian people had learned something of the riches to be 
found in India and America. 

The Dutch first tried to reach the East Indies by sail- -j-^g Dutch 
ing to the north around America and Europe. Failing of "oood'Hope^^ 
in this, finally a Dutch navigator boldly took the Portu- ^^^^' 
guese route by the Cape of Good Hope. His course was 
rapidly followed by others, and in 1602 the Dutch East 
India Company was formed. . During the seventeenth 
century this Dutch company succeeded in virtually ex- 
pelling the Portuguese from the East, and in taking their 
place. 

One of the sea captains employed by Holland in the settlement of 
attempt to find a northwest passage to the Indies was I'^nj ^eTs'^"^ 
Henry Hudson, an Englishman. In 1609 he found the 



38 The Groivth of the American Nation. 

river which bears his name, and sailed up its waters for 
some distance, hoping to find it a strait leading to the 
Pacific. Later Dutch voyagers established a thriving 
fijr trade in the vicinity of Hudson's discovery, and in 
1615 a fort was built near what is now Albany. In 1621 
the Dutch West India Company was organized, and in 
the following year took formal possession of the settle- 
New Amster- rnents. The chief town was New Amsterdam, at the 
^'*'"' lower end of Manhattan Island. Fort Orange (Albany) 

was the northernmost stronghold on the Hudson, and 
ports were established on the Connecticut River near 
Hartford and on the Delaware (the South River, as the 
Dutch called it) below Camden. The claim was made to 
all the land between the Connecticut and the Delaware, 
and a purchase from the Indians added a large tract of 
what is now the state of Delaware. A treaty was made 
with the Indians, and the colony had a slow but reason- 
ably steady growth. 
The EiiRiish T\v& English did not admit the title of the Dutch to 

^pufpmpnt?""^'' New Netherland, claiming the whole Atlantic coast from 
the French settlements to those of the Spanish in Florida, 
and westward to the South Sea. The exigencies of 
European politics, however, did not allow a forcible dis- 
possession of the sturdy Hollanders until 1664. By that 
time the commercial and maritime rivalry of England 
and the Netherlands was at its height, and King Charles 
II. granted the land between the Connecticut and the 
Delaware to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, 
quite regardless of previous royal grants to New Eng- 
land. An English squadron appeared in the harbor 
and took possession without difficulty of New Amster- 
dam. In a few days the whole colony passed under 
English control. The titles of the new proprietor were 
perpetuated by calling New Amsterdam New York, and 



settlements, 



New Sweden, 



The Sh'iiggle for Dominion. 39 

Fort Orange Albany. The Dutch settlers were not dis- 
turbed in their private rights, and indeed they on the 
whole preferred the liberal government of Englishmen 
to the arbitrary methods of the Dutch company. 

Thus ended the Dutch attempt at an American col- 
ony. It fell into English hands without the loss of a 
drop of blood. And the Dutch inhabitants became 
easily amalgamated with the English. Community in 
the Protestant religion and in essential political ideas 
was stronger than differences of speech and of historic 
origin. 

The Scandinavian attempt at an American colony was 
even of shorter life than that of the Dutch. The Danes "^^^• 
had occupied Iceland and Greenland long before, but 
those bleak possessions hardly added to the power of 
the mother-country. The great Gustavus Adolphus of 
Sweden projected a settlement for his people in a more 
sunny part of the New World, which might, like New 
England, be a refuge for the Protestant faith. After the 
death of the warrior king, his design was carried out, 
and a colony of Swedes and Finns was formed not far 
from Wilmington. Their fort they named Christiana, 
from the child who was queen of Sweden. Land was 
bought of the Indians, and the colony had a quiet pros- 
perity. But after the Swedish power in Europe was 
no longer able to protect its distant emigrants, the Dutch 
in New Netherland sent a military expedition which ^ . ,^ ^ 

■^ ^ _ Seized by the 

seized the Swedish settlement and annexed it to the ^ujch.iess, 

and by the 

Dutch colony. And nine years later. the English oc- English, 1664. 
cupation of New Netherland of course included New 
Sweden. The Swedish country was sold to Penn at the 
time his charter was granted, in 1681, and was known as 
the lower counties on the Delaware — afterwards merely 
Delaware. 



40 



The Growth of the American Natio7i. 



New France. 



Fiske, II., 493. 



\'(>yages of 
Veriazano and 
Cartier. 



Settlement at 
Port Royal, 

1604. 

Quebec, 1608. 



The French rivalry with England was a far more seri- 
ous thing. Colonies and commerce were felt to be 
necessary to national prosperity, and so these France 
was determined to have. A French East India Com- 
pany was formed in 1604, four years after the English and 
two years after the Dutch. And at about the same time 
determined efforts were made at settlements in America. 

King Francis I. of France had no notion that Spain 
and Portugal should monopolize the world, even if the 
pope had bestowed it on them. He sent word to that 
effect to Charles of Spain, asking if our first father, 
Adam, had made those nations his sole heirs. " If so, 
it would be no more than proper for them to produce a 
copy of the will ; and meanwhile he should feel at liberty 
to seize upon all he could get. ' ' 

The first Frenchmen to visit the American coasts 
were fishermen, who in the opening years of the six- 
teenth century began a lucrative business on the banks 
and coasts of Newfoundland. An Italian commanding 
a French ship, Verrazano, in 1524 sailed along the coast 
from Cape Fear to about 50° of north latitude. Of 
course this discovery could give France no title as 
against the English voyage of Cabot in 1497. In 1534 
Jacques Cartier entered the gulf and river which he 
named St. Lawrence, and sailed up as far as the rock of 
Quebec. He took possession of the country in the 
name of France. 

The religious and civil dissensions in France during the 
rest of the century, however, prevented any definite colo- 
nization. It was not vmtil 1604 that a permanent French 
settlement was made in America, at Port Roj-al, in Acadia. 
And four years later Champlain established a colony at 
Quebec. Thus was laid the foundation of Canada, in the 
year following the English beginning in Virginia. 



The Stniggle for Dominion. 



41 



I 



The main source of wealth in Canada was the fur 
trade, and to carry on this traffic the French voyageurs 
ranged the forests and traversed rivers and lakes for 
thousands of miles. Their energy was paralleled by the 
tireless devotion of the Jesuit missionaries, who endured 
every hardship and encountered every danger in order 
to win the savages to the Christian faith. 

Still the French colony progressed slowly. Few 
Frenchmen cared to leave their homes for a wilderness. 
And unlike the English colonies, which were largely the 
result of private initiative, in Canada everything came 
from the king and the governor. But the vigor and 
heroism of the leaders were something that belongs to 
the romance of history. The fur traders and mission- 
aries fraternized with the Indians, lived in their villages, 
traveled in their canoes. In 1673 Joliet, a fur trader, 
and Father Marquette, a Jesuit, ascended Fox River, 
crossed the portage, only two miles wide, to the Wis- 
consin, floated down that stream to the Mississippi, and 
descended the great river as far as the mouth of the 
Arkansas. 

The greatest of the French explorers was La Salle. 
In 1679 he left Montreal to find the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. On Lake Erie he built a sailing vessel, in which 
he made the voyage to Mackinac. After many efforts and 
many discouragements, he finally landed where Chicago 
now stands, crossed the portage to the Illinois River, and 
thus reached the Mississippi. Descending this he finally 
reached the Gulf of Mexico. Here he set up the arms 
of France and formally made claim for his country to 
the whole valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries. 
He named the new province Louisiana, from King 
Louis XIV. 

Trading posts and forts were established in the upper 



The fur trade 
and the Catho- 
lic missionaries. 



French ex- 
plorers reach 
the Mississippi, 
1673. 



La Salle 
explores the 
Mississippi to 
the Gulf of 
Mexico, 16S2. 



42 



Tlie Grozvth of the American Nation. 



French settle- 
ments on the 
Gulf of Mexico. 



Character of 
the English 
settlements. 



1685. 



Character of 
the French 
settlements. 



lakes, on Mackinac Island, on Chequamegon Bay, Lake 
Superior, and at other points. It was not till the second 
decade of the eighteenth century that the French made 
good their claim to a footing on the gulf. Mobile being 
founded in 1 7 1 1 , and New Orleans, named in honor of 
the regent of France, in 17 18. The Illinois country 
was held by Fort St. Vincent (now Vincennes, Ind. ), 
Kaskaskia, and other settlements. 

Thus while the English were scattered along the sea- 
coast, the French had explored and occupied the interior 
of the continent. From Quebec to Mackinac, through- 
out the valleys of the Illinois and the Mississippi, to 
New Orleans and Mobile, the lilies of France were 
triumphant. 

These French settlers were very different from the 
English. The latter kept proudly aloof from the In- 
dians, merely getting the land in some way and building 
on it Enelish homes. The Eno-lish colonies, too, were 
quite independent of one another. Each managed its 
own affairs as it saw fit, subject only to the British gov- 
ernment at home. So the English settlement was car- 
ried on without any general plan. And indeed the 
various colonies were so different in origin and character 
that they had a very limited mutual sympathv. All the 
religious and political dissensions of the mother-country 
seemed reproduced in the New World. 

The French were all Catholics. The few Huguenots 
of the early settlements had vanished when Louis XIV. 
revoked the Edict of Nantes, and the Jesuits enforced a 
stern uniformity. The French, however, had more 
tolerance for the red men, or at least for the red women, 
than for Protestant heretics. The light-hearted voyageur 
was apt to take to himself an Indian wife, and made 
himself quite contented with a home in a Huron village. 



The Struggle for Dominion. 43 

The numerous half-breeds were loyal Catholics, and as 
canoemen and trappers were valuable hands in the fur 
trade. 

In Acadia and in the valley of the St. Lawrence the 
Norman and Breton peasants patiently reproduced the 
farms of the home country. But, after all, the great 
industry of Canada was the traffic in furs. At the ap- Put's- 
pointed times fleets of canoes assembled at Mackinac 
and the other forest posts. The trappers exchanged 
their bales for clothes and provisions, for tobacco and 
ammunition, and for a few days enjoyed the revels of 
comparative civilization. Then they plunged again into 
the forest for another solitary and laborious tour. All ,. , 

Centralized 

the French settlements in Canada were under a single government, 
authority, as were those of Louisiana. Either from 
Quebec or New Orleans came the orders which kept the 
scattered posts in constant touch. And this centralized 
and energetic administration was able to look far ahead 
and to work steadily toward a definite end. Thus in 
many ways the advantage seemed to lie with the French. 
And it was a serious question at the middle of the 
eighteenth century whether America should be French 
or English. 

The strife was in the first place a race for land. In ^ ^^^^ f^^. 1^,^^ 
the early days of settlement the continent was so vast 
and the colonists so few that collisions were not many. 
But as the British gradually pushed their clearings up to 
the AUeghenies and the French built a chain of posts 
along the Great Lakes and the Illinois and the Missis- 
sippi, it appeared that there would surely come a clash. 
The English claimed all the country as far north as Lab- 
rador and as far south as the Spanish possessions, and 
west within those limits clear through to the Pacific 
Ocean, on the ground of Cabot's discovery in 1497. 



44 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



A race for 
trade. 



" Blood and 
iron." 



Acadia an- 
nexed, 1713. 



The French scouted this claim. They held it absurd 
that a mere prior glance at the sea-coast should give 
title to the land as far as it might go. Actual ex- 
ploration and occupation, they asserted, were needed 
for a good title. And as they had actually explored 
and settled strategic points in the valleys of the St. 
Lawrence and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, those 
lakes and streams and all the lands they drained, from 
watershed to watershed, belonged to them and not to 
the English. 

As each nation pushed farther inland the rivalry be- 
came a race for commerce. The French claimed a 
monopoly of the fur trade in all the territory over which 
they asserted that they held sway. And the British 
traders were bound to share in the profits of that tempt- 
ing traffic. As the latter were able to offer the savages 
cheaper goods than the French did, it was hard to keep 
the British traders out. And so a constant quarrel 
raged on the border. English traders were seized and 
sent back, and their goods confiscated. But others took 
their place. The French were attacked by Indians, and 
found their enemies supplied with British muskets. The 
English had a savage war always smoldering on their 
border, and charged it to French instigation. 

Such a rivalry as that of the two nations and of their 
colonists in the New World could hardly be settled by 
peaceable means. The colonies came nearest together 
on the seaboard, and here blood was shed earliest. 
The Acadians were several times conquered by British 
arms, and the peace of Utrecht in 1713 finally gave 
their country over to the English crown. The French 
settlers were unmolested, however, for many years. But 
in 1755 England and France were again at war. The 
simple Breton peasants in Acadia were willing to be 



The Struggle for Dominion. 



45 



neutral, but would not take arms against their country- 
men. And the British authorities settled the questions 
by expelling the Acadians from their homes in a mass. 
Their cattle and crops were seized as the spoil of the 
British officers, their houses and barns were burned, and 
some seven thousand of the poor Acadians were scat- 
tered among the English colonies. So arbitrary and 
cruel was the management of the deputation that families 
were separated, and for a long time the colonial papers 
contained advertisements for missing daughters or 
fathers. 

The same treaty which secured Acadia (Nova Scotia) 
to England, also conceded Newfoundland. English 
settlers already occupied the island, but it had been fre- 
quented by French fishermen for more than a century. 
France retained certain fishing rights on the shore, and 
certain outlying islands — which belong to her yet, the 
last remnant of her once vast American empire. 

After the loss of Acadia, with the harbor at Port 
Royal, the French built a new citadel at Louisburg, on 
Cape Breton Island. This was a strong fortress, and a 
very important one. It served to guard the entrance to 
the St. Lawrence and to protect the fishermen on the 
coasts of Newfoundland. Strong as it was, however, 
it was taken in 1745 by an improvised army of New 
England farmers and fishermen cooperating with a Brit- 
ish squadron. At the peace in 1748 it was given back 
to France. But ten years later it was again reduced, 
and this time it was razed to the ground. As the Brit- 
ish already had a naval station at Halifax, they did not 
need another on Cape Breton, and did not wish it again 
to become French. 

The English wars with Spain in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth were really in defense of the national inde- 



Longfellow's 
"Evangeline " 
is based on this 
event. 



Newfoundland 
secured, 1713. 



Louisburg de- 
stroyed, 1758. 



England wins 
America. 



46 



The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



England and 
Spain. 



England and 
the Dutch. 



pendence. The Invincible Armada of 1588 was merely 
an attempt to subjugate England in the interest of Philip 
II. and the pope. But in the contest the English sailors 
carried the war into every part of the world, and learned 
to despise the Spanish claim to the monopoly of America 
and the South Sea. 

During the seventeenth century England's chief rival 
as a commercial and maritime nation was the Nether- 
lands. The plucky Dutch seamen were found all over 
the globe. Dutch merchants were quite as enterprising 
as those of England. The first English East India Com- 
pany was chartered in 1600, and the Dutch East India 
Company in 1602, And in those years it seemed quite 




Spanish claims f-^ 

French claims Fm 

English poas tTTmn 



The Territory of the Present 

TJ.NITED STATES 

During the French-IndUaWaH. 

1755-1163 




as likely that the Hollanders would in the end be the 
great commercial nation of the globe as that the Eng- 
lish would win that place. The English founded a colony 
in America in 1607, and only two years later Henry 
Hudson's Dutchmen sailed up the river which was to be 



The Struggle for Dominion. 47 

the center of Dutch America. There was a series of 
national wars in which the balance hung pretty even, but 
on the whole the advantage was with England, and at 
any rate the Dutch colony of New Netherland fell into 
English hands. 

The next great rival of England was France. The England and 
French, too, as we have seen, entered the race for com- 
merce and colonies. They made settlements in America 
and established factories in India. And this rivalry 
finally led to actual hostilities — a " hundred years' war," 
or series of wars, which began in 1689 when the Stuart 
kings, mere pensioners of France, were finally driven 
from the throne of England, and only ended in 18 15 
when the star of Napoleon sank in blood on the field 
of Waterloo. Of course complications of European 
politics were prominent factors in determining inter- 
national relations. But back of all was the determi- 
nation of England to control the trade of the world, and 
the resolute effort of France to share in this great source 
of wealth and power. Whene\'er the two nations were 
at war, and often when they were not, hostilities raged 
on the American frontiers. 

The first war (1689-97) was marked in America by The first war 
Indian raids from Canada upon the exposed settlements '^^9-97- 
in New York and Massachusetts. In return the col- 
onists captured Port Royal, but it v/as given back to 
France. The peace of Ryswick (1697) left American 
territory unchanged. The only result was mutual ex- 
asperation. 

The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13) at once xhe second 
led to a renewal of the bloody frontier skirmishes. The ^'^^^ 1702-13- 
New Englanders again captured Port Royal, and this 
time they held it. An attempt to get Quebec failed dis- 
astrously. The peace of Utrecht (17 13) yielded to Pp. 44-5. 



48 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The third war, 
1744-48. 



P-45. 



The fourth war, 

1756-63. 



1755- 



Braddock's 
defeat, 1755. 



175S. 



England Hudson's Bay and Strait, Newfoundland, and 
Acadia. Thus a considerable part of New France was 
won, including the original settlement at Port Royal. 

The War of the Austrian Succession (1744-48) was 
marked in the New World by the brilliant success of the 
New England colonists in capturing the great fortress of 
Louisburg. To be sure, the peace of 1748 restored this 
prize to France, but the achievement served greatly to 
encourage the colonists, and to open their eyes as to 
their own power in war. 

The Seven Years' War broke out in Europe in 1756 and 
ended with the treaty of Paris in 1763. But hostilities 
began in America two years earlier. 

By this time the English colonies had developed a vig- 
orous life. They had a population of over a million, and 
large resources available for war. The French, on the 
other hand, had only about sixty-five thousand people in 
the St. Lawrence Valley. They were a handful. But 
their leaders were full of spirit and energy. To head off 
the British traders they seized the junction of the Alle- 
gheny and Monongahela Rivers and built there a fort 
which they named Duquesne. This was on ground 
which the English claimed, and measures were taken to 
dislodge the enemy. A British army moved through 
the woods to attack the fort, but was surprised and cut 
to pieces while tangled in the wilderness. Other ex- 
peditions in the North also failed. The French had forti- 
fied the line of Lakes George and Champlain, and the 
Niagara River. So the war languished till Pitt became 
prime minister of England. Then genius and energy 
displaced the feebleness of previous years. Fort Du- 
quesne was taken, and thus the Ohio Valley was wrested 
from France. Fort Niagara fell, cutting off the route 
to the upper lakes. Ticonderoga and Crown Point 



The Struggle for Dominion. 



49 



were seized. Louisburg surrendered, and finally a 
strong attack was made on the center of French power '"59- 
at Quebec. Wolfe led the English, and found a worthy 
foe in the French commander, Montcalm. After many 
failures, the British general succeeded in bringing his 
adversary to battle, and was completely victorious. Both 
commanders fell. In a i&w days Quebec surrendered. 
The next year the last French army in America was de- 
feated, Montreal was captured, and the war in America 
was ended. 

The peace of 1763 yielded to England all the French . 

possessions east of the Mississippi. In the previous ^^^o- 



f^^ 




y^ 




The Territory of the Present 

UNITED STATES 

After Feb. 10, 1763. 

Result of the French and 

Indian Wars, 



year the French king had ceded to his ally, the king of 
Spain, the city of New Orleans and all the French 
claims west of the Mississippi, as recompense for losses 
sustained in the cause of France. 

Thus ended the French rivalry with England in Amer- 
ica. New France, like New Netherland and New 



50 



The GrocC'ih of the American Nation. 



Sweden, had been taken by force of arms under the 
British flag. England now had no partner in North 
America but Spain. And that nation was by this time 
so feeble as not to be dangerous. Besides, the Spanish 
possessions were in the southern and tropical lands, 
which England as yet did not covet. What would have 
been the case if Great Britain had not lost her colonies 
a few years later, is quite another question. 



SUMMARY OF PART I. 

Columbus, in 1492, while sailing west in order to 
reach Asia, found a cluster of islands which he supposed 
to be outlying parts of the Indies which he was seek- 
ing. He never knew his error, and it was years before 
it began even to be suspected that there was a new con- 
tinent. Even when Balboa in 15 13 discovered what he 
called the South Sea he had no idea that it was a vast 
ocean. The name America was first given to what we 
know as South America, which was gradually disclosed 
by successive Spanish and Portuguese voyages. Magel- 
lan in 1520 found a passage from the Atlantic to the 
South Sea. To his amazement he discovered the latter 
to be a vast ocean, which he called the Pacific. Even 
after South America was pretty well marked out there 
long lingered the notion that the northern lands were 
connected with Asia. It was not until the voyages of 
Bering in 1728 and 1741 that the eastern limits of Asia 
and the western limits of America were defined. 

There are traditions that the eastern coast of North 
America was visited by Scandinavians some five cen- 
turies before the time of Columbus. Whether this is 
true or not is of small account, because nothing came of 



Summarv of Part I. 



51 



it. The voyage of Cabot in 1497 practically marks the 
discovery of those coasts by Europeans, and on that 
voyage England based her claim to the continent. 

The Spaniards and Portuguese settled and held the 
Americas from Florida to Cape Horn without inter- 
ference. The sixteenth century is filled with their ex- 
plorations and conquests. It was not until the seven- 
teenth century that the other maritime powers began a 
serious rivalry. The Dutch and English, and later the 
French, entered systematically on the Asiatic trade, thus 
interfering with the Portuguese monopoly. And all 
three of those nations, as well as the Swedes, set out to 
colonize and hold America. The little Swedish settle- 
ment in Delaware was seized by the Dutch, and the lat- 
ter in turn were conquered by an English expedition. 
The English colonies were scattered along the Atlantic 
coast, while the French penetrated the valleys of the 
St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. The long struggle 
between these rival civilizations for North America was 
ended in 1763 by the victory of the English. The .St. 
Lawrence and Ohio Valleys went to them, while the 
western side of the Mississippi Valley France ceded to 
Spain. Thus the French were eliminated from the 
North American continent, and its European possessions 
were reduced to Spain and England. 



Settlement. 



Struggle for 
dominion. 



PART 11. 
THE COLONIES BECOME A NATION. 

1763-1789. 



Europeans. 



PART II.-THE COLONIES BECOME A NATION. 

1703-1789. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE COLONIES AFTER THE FRENXH WARS. 

In 1763, when the French king rehnquished his The population 
Aniericcin possessions to the victorious Enghsh, the At- 
lantic colonies had been founded for a century and a 
half Their growth had been slow, but yet steady and 
vigorous. There was now a considerable population of 
people who, while natives of the New World, were 
European in race. They were, however, strongly at- 
tached to their American home and their American cus- 
toms. It is hard to estimate the numbers of this popu- 
lation with much exactness, as no census was taken till 
1790. But there were doubtless upwards of a million. 
Massachusetts was by far the most populous, having Bancroft, iii. 
more than 200,000, while Georgia had, perhaps, 5,000 
or 10,000. 

In these same colonies there was another class of im- 
migrants from the eastern hemisphere — if the name im- 
migrant can properly be applied to people whose change 
of home was quite involuntary. Negro slavery was a 
common fact in the eighteenth century. It had begun Africans, 
among the European nations as early as 1442, when a 
Portuguese explorer brought a cargo of black slaves to 
Lisbon. The Spaniards found out at an early period 
that their Indian slaves died with frightful rapidity under 
the exhausting labor of the mines, and in the opening 
years of the sixteenth centur}- trial had been made of 

55 



56 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



European 
nationalities. 



Scotch and 
Scotch-Irish. 



Frencli 
Huguenots. 



the more robust Africans. Their importation afterwards 
became a necessity, or was so thought, and the same 
system ahnost from the first prevailed in the English 
colonies. Bancroft estimates 363,000 negroes in British 
America in 1763, of whom less than 50,000 were north 
of Maryland. But slavery existed in every colony. 

The colonists of European race were mostly British, 
the great majority being English. There were not a few 
of Scotch descent, their ancestors ha\ing come from 

Scotland or the 
north of Ireland. 
Scotch settlements 
had been made in 
New Hampshire 
and North Caro- 
lina, in particular, 
and from this stock 
at a later day came 
Andrew Jackson 
and Daniel Web- 
ster. More or less 
Irish were found in 
all the colonies. 
French Huguenots 
had taken refuge 
in America from 
persecution at 
home, and were 
especially numer- 
ous in South Car- 
olina. The revolutionary patriots, Henry Laurens and 
General Francis Marion, were of Huguenot blood. In 
New York the Hollanders were a large element, the Dutch 
language being still used commonly in business and in 




Henry Laurens. 
Born in South Carolina, 1724; died, 1792. Mer- 
chant and patriot. President of Congress, 1777-8 ; 
minister to Holland, 1779; captured by British 
and imprisoned in Tower of London ; exchanged 
for Lord Cornwallis ; with Jay and Franklin, 
negotiated treaty of peace with Great Britain, 
17S2. 



The Colonics after the French Wars. 57 



the church service. In Pennsylvania about a third of McMaster, 
the population were German, and the German tongue, ' ^^' 
" Pennsylvania Dutch," as it was called by the English 
colonists, was yet their prevailing speech. And in Del- 
aware there were a few Swedes. 

The religion of the colonies along the Atlantic was al- Religion, 
most entirely Protestant in some form. Maryland had 
been settled by Roman Catholics, and perhaps a fifteenth 
of her people were of that faith. But there were very 
few Catholics in the other colonies. The New England- 
ers were Puritans, the Baptists being strong in Rhode 
Island and the Congregationalists in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. In New York the Reformed Church of 
Holland included the Dutch colonists, while those of 
British extraction were mostly either Episcopalians or 
Presbyterians. The Lutheran Church, as well as that of 
the Friends (Quakers), was powerful in Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, while the English Protestant Episcopal 
Church was established by law in Virginia and had many 
adherents farther south. It was an important fact with 
reference to the last-named church that the colonies had 
no bishop of their own but were attached to the diocese 
of London. In this way many of the churches were apt 
to be supplied with clergymen for whom it was difficult 
to provide in England. They were not always compe- 
tent and not infrequently thoroughly disreputable. 

It is an interesting fact to observe that the religious 
organization of the colonies was a quite accurate index of 
the sources and periods of immigration. 

Education of the young was almost from the first a Education 
matter of concern in nearly all the colonies. Perhaps 
the first permanent school was that founded by the Dutch This school is 
at New Amsterdam in 1633. Two years later the people ^^ ^^'^ '"^' 
of Massachusetts Bay established a public school, and in 



58 



The GroivtJi of tlie American Nation. 



Harvard Col- 
lege, 1836. 



Public schools. 



New England. 



Virginia. 



Collesres. 



1636 voted a fund to found a college. But the begin- 
nings of the American system of public schools date 
from the Massachusetts statutes of 1642 and 1647, which 
required the maintenance of a sufficient school in each 
town and provided for compulsory attendance. This 
system, and still more the spirit and ideas which lay back 
of it, sufficed to make New England an intelligent com- 
munity—so much so that an illiterate person was a rarity. 
In the middle colonies much was done to provide schools, 
although not on so systematic a basis as in the East. In 
the southern colonies there was less general interest in 
popular education, and at the same time the scattered 
life of the planters on their wide estates made schools dif- 
ficult to maintain. Governor Berkeley of Virginia said 
in 167 1 : "I thank God there are no free schools nor 
printing ; and I hope we shall not ha\'e these hundred 
years ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy 
and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, 
and libels against the best government. God keep us 
from both!" The governor did not object to schools 
for the gentry, and such establishments grew up in many 
places. 

Sooner or later nearly every colony had its college. 
Harvard, 1636, was followed by William and Mary, in 
Virginia, 1688 ; Yale, in Connecticut. 1701 ; Princeton, 
in New Jersey, 1746 ; Kings (now Columbia), in New 
York, 1754 ; Brown, in Rhode Island, 1764; and Dart- 
mouth, in New Hampshire, 1769. The Philadelphia 
Academy, which afterwards grew into the University of 
Pennsylvania, was founded in 1749. By the end of the 
century there were twenty-four colleges, of which nine 
were in the South. The early purpose of many of these 
colleges was to train young men for the ministry. Har- 
vard for its first sixty years was virtually a theological 



The Colonies after the French Wars. 



59 



seminary ; and others, like Yale and Williams and Penn- 
sylvania, were in the beginning what we should call acad- 
emies. 

But college-trained men were numerous in the colo- 
nies. They were found in all the learned professions, 
and among the leaders of the popular party at the time gracffates in 
of the Revolution the graduates of Yale and Kings and 
Princeton and the rest were conspicuous and able. Such 
a man as Benjamin Franklin was an exception. He had 
no college education. But his great natural powers and 
tireless industry would have raised him to eminence in 
any society and under almost any conditions. His 
" Poor Richard's Almanac " furnished the philosophy of 
life for the masses. His scientific discoveries ranked him 
with European savants, and his administrative and polit- 
ical skill made him easily a leader in colonial progress. 

Life in the colonies was not complex. There were 
not wide differences of wealth. There 
were no great libraries or galleries of 
paintings, no grand cathedrals or 
palaces, no general patronage of 
music or art or literature. And so 
there was little development of liter- 
ary or artistic achievement. The 
Virginians read the English classics — 
Shakspere and Addison and Pope. 
The Connecticut Puritan read Milton and the English 
Bible. Men of intellectual tastes were apt to go into the 
law or theology. The New England theologians were New England 
ardent and profound, and their influence in the com- "^ '^■'gymen. 
munity was commanding. The Massachusetts parson 
really governed his parish. He was an authority on 
politics and learning as well as in religion. His endless 
sermons were more than a mere religious exhortation — 




Literature 
and art. 



Stocks. 
Used in the colonies to 
punish misdemeanors. 



6o The Growth of the American Nation. 



Newspapers. 



Article " News- 
papers " in the 
Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. 



they were sermon and magazine and newspaper all in one. 

Magazine literature did not exist in America, and the 
newspapers were scanty in number and scantier in news. 
Not counting some spasmodic attempts, the first Ameri- 
can newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, founded in 
1704. In 1 7 19 its editor congratulated his readers on 
the great enlargement and improvement of his paper, 
whereby it was at that time only five months behind 
England in general European news, while a year before 
it had been thirteen months behind. There were thirty- 
four small sheets, all weeklies, at the opening of the Rev- 
olution. Four tiny pages were the rule, containing a 
few quaint advertisements, a very little news, and a selec- 
tion of sedate letters on a variety of subjects. During 
the Revolutionary War the Massachusetts Spy, for lack 
of fresher matter, published in successive issues the whole 
of Robertson's " History of America." 

In all the colonies the lawyers were well trained and 
acute. In more cases than one the young men of well- 
to-do families were sent ' ' home ' ' to England to get their 
education at Oxford and the Temple in London. 

The great bulk of the Americans were farmers. Cities, 
Agriculture and indeed, wcrc fcw and small. The exports of America 
were products of the ocean, the forest, and the fields. 
Agriculture in New England was not fruitful in wealth, 
and the hardy colonists plowed the sea quite as much 
as the land. They were active in the fisheries, and in 
dried cod they drove a thriving trade with Europe and 
the West Indies. Indeed codfish was at one time used 
as money in Massachusetts, and the same useful fish was 
a symbol of that enterprising colony. New England 
ships were largely engaged in whaling also, and the 
ships themselves were made in great numbers in Maine. 

The New England farmers were usually gathered in 



commerce. 



The Colonics after the French Wars. 



6i 




villages, their tilled fields stretching on all sides. But 
in the South the plantations were large, the owner with 
his family and dependents, white and black, living in a 
sort of feudal state. Towns and vil- 
lages were few. Agriculture here 
was the main source of income, the 
tobacco of Virginia, tar and turpentine 
of North Carolina, and rice of South 
Carolina, being staple articles of ex- 
port. 

These products, with the fish, whale 
oil, furs, and ships of the North, were 
sold to Europe in considerable annual 

. -y^ .. . Pillory. 

quantities. \\\ return English manu- used in the colonies to 
factured articles were sent to the P""ish misdemeanors. 
colonies. And England was very careful that no com- 
petition in manufactures should spring up over seas. 

Each European nation which had established colonies 
used them for its own sole benefit. Hence it was a set- 
tled principle that trade with them should be confined to 
its own ships, that colonial products should be exported 
to no place but the mother-country, and that there 
should be no competing colonial products. Therefore, 
when England, in 1651 and 1660, enacted navigation 
laws forbidding ti'ade with England, including English 
colonies, except in English ships, she was only doing 
what Spain and Portugal had been doing from the first. 
Subsequent laws made the restrictions still closer. The 
English idea of colonies was that they should produce 
commodities which could not be produced in the mother- 
country and which the mother-country needed, that they 
should consume what she had to sell, that they should 
never be competitors with her, and should trade with no 
other nation. Accordingly England was very glad to 



The colonial 
system. 



Navigation 
acts. 



Bancroft, 

I., 414. 



62 



The Growth of the Americmi Nation. 



Prohibition of 
American man- 
ufactures, 1699. 



1732. 

Statute of 5 Geo. 
II., Ch. XXII. 



'750- 



Bancroft, 

II. , 521; III. ,42- 



The main pro- 
visions of the 
statute are 
quoted by 
Swank, p. 482. 



Navigation 
Laws not always 
enforced. 



Cities. 



buy from America tobacco and naval stores. But when 
the Americans began to manufacture woolens they were 
promptly forbidden to export wool or woolen goods from 
one colony to another. Then the colonists began to 
make hats, whereupon the exportation of hats from col- 
ony to colony was prohibited, and the number of hatters' 
apprentices was limited by law. The manufacture of iron 
grew very slowly in the colonies. But gradually it ex- 
cited alarm among the English ironmasters, and so a 
statute was passed which permitted the importation of 
pig and bar-iron into England duty free, but forbade the 
erection of " any mill for slitting or rolling iron, or any 
plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace 
for making steel. ' ' Mills already existing were not dis- 
turbed, a clause providing for their abolition having 
failed to pass in the House of Commons by a slender 
majority. By these means American manufactures were 
prevented from becoming more than enough barely to 
supply a neighborhood with coarse articles. 

During the long period of the French wars, the Navi- 
gation Acts were not very strictly enforced, and an active 
trade grew up between the colonies and the West Indies. 
The colonists carried thither dried fish and lumber, 
bringing back large quantities of sugar and rum, or of 
molasses from which "New England rum" was made. 
But this lucrative traffic was illegal, and might at any 
time be broken up. 

The colonial cities were few and small. Nearly every 
colony had a seaport, and its settlements straggled away 
from it for some distance, and then were divided by a 
stretch of wilderness from the settlements of the next 
colony. Philadelphia was the metropolis, boasting in 
1763 a population of perhaps 30,000. New York had 
about 20,000, Boston less than 15,000, Baltimore 5,000, 



The Colonies after the French Wars. 



63 



Providence about 4,000, Albany 3,000. These in our For larger esti- 
day we should call merely small towns. The rest of popuLtion of 
the cities, Hartford, Portsmouth, Charleston, Savannah, Lodge,'p^456, 
were merely villages. In fact, only about three per cent 
of the Americans of 1763 lived in what could be called 
cities. The percentage in 1890 was twenty-seven. 

The general scale of living was plain but abundant. 
Of course there was a wide difference between different 




" Westover," a Colonial Mansion near Richmond, Virginia. 



sections. The wealthy planters in the South lived after 
the manner of English country gentlemen. The men social life, 
cared for their estates, rode, hunted, raced horses. 
Cards and dancing were the amusements at social gath- 
erings. In New England puritanism gave a grave tinge 
to society. But irrepressible human nature bubbled 
over nevertheless, and sedate rustic life was enlivened 



64 



The Grtmfk of the American Nation. 



by the huskingf bee. the sleigrh ride, the g^enerous feast- 
ing of Thanksg^ivinof. and the athletic sports which ac- 
companied the annual day of ' ' general training. ' ' The 
great fireplace around which the fimily gathered on 
winter evenings consumed wood by the cord, and its 
cheerhil bhize certainly was a ddightlul center of so- 
ciability — idthough we should not appreciate the pleasure 
of hvwing the face roasting and the back shivering at the 
same time. We must remember that in that day there 
were no stoves, no fiiction matches, no gas or electric 
lights, no sewing machines. The houses through the 
country- were of unpointed boards, although in the 
Lurger cities brick was much used in building. And 
there were some mansions in Maryland and \'irginia 
built of brick which had been imported firom England — 
just as in New York there were fireplaces lined with tiles 
which had been brought fi-om Holland. 

In neariy all the colonies there were rather sharp dis- 
tinctions of social rank. As late as 1772 the students 
in the Har\-ard catalogue were arranged in the order of 
social standing. The New England aristocrats filled the 
offices and the professions. The New York and \'ir- 
ginia gentry* were great landholders. Democracy, either 
social or politiad. \i-as not a colonial idea. 

The means of travel and communication would seem 
to us verj- inadequate. Roads were not good, bridges 
were few. and joume\-s of any length had to be made 
on horseback. Stage coaches ran on some routes. The 
time fi>?m Boston to New York w^s four da\-s, and fi\)m 
New York to Philadelphia w~as three da\-Sw This was in 
1756. In 1766 a greatly improved conve>-ance was put 
on the latter route, which made the trip in two da>-s. 
And so rapid did this appear that the coach \»-as ciUed 
the *' fl\-ing machine." Whenever possible travel went 



The Colonics after the French W^ars. 65 



by water. Sloops sailed along the coast and up the 
ri\ers, carrying passengers and freight. This was a 
much more comfortable means of transit, but was de- 
cidedly uncertain as to time. A given voyage might 
take two days or two weeks, according to the wind. 

The colonial life was rather narrow, rather slow. In- a slow life. 
terests were not many and not very complicated. It 
took weeks for news to cross the Atlantic, and three 
weeks for ideas to spread through all the colonies. The 
Yankees were famed for their incpiisitiveness. We can 
hardly wonder. It was their only way of getting some- 
thing to think about. The southerners were equally 
famed for their eager hospitality. We can hardly 
wonder at that either. A stranger with something to 
tell must have been a godsend. 

The colonies had about the same form of goxernment, Govcniniciii. 
although there were three types. 

Connecticut and Rhode Island had charters from the charters. 
crown. Under these charters they elected their own 
governor and legislature, and thus made their own laws. 
These laws were subject to the approval of the crown, 
and could not be contrary to the laws of England. The 
old charter of Massachusetts had been so modified as to 
give the crown the api:)ointment of the governor and 
the negative on laws. 

Pennsylvania anil Maryland belonged to private per- i.,oprietary 
sons in England, the former to the descendants of Will- ^'"•°"'"^s- 
iam Penn, the latter to the sixth Lord Baltimore. The 
people of Maryland elected a legislature, but the pro- 
prietor appointed the governor, the judges, and all ad- Bancroft, 
ministrative officers. He had a veto on legislation, '''•'^9- 
and from ^■arious taxes, duties, and rents deri\'ed a 
considerable income. The colony was in many ways 
a sort of feudal appanage. The proprietor of Pennsyl- 



66 



The Growth of the Ainerican Nation. 



vania, however, had granted a very Hberal constitution. 

Delaware, with a legislature of its own, was attached 
to the administrative government of Pennsylvania. 
Maine was a district of Massachusetts, and Vermont 
was claimed by New York and New Hampshire. 

In the other colonies, the governor, judges, and ad- 




Towii-meetings. 



- ^f^ 'Mt^^ 



Residence of the Washington Family, and Birthplace of George 
Washington, on Bridges Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia. 

ministrative officials were appointed by the crown. The 
people chose a legislature, but the royal governor had 
an absolute veto on its acts. 

In New England the political unit was the town-meet- 
ing, in which the people were accustomed to assemble 
for the management of their local affairs and the choice 
of their legislators. In this way the New Englanders 
became very independent in their way of thinking, and 
quite disinclined to being governed without being 
consulted. 

The valley of the St. Lawrence presented a very dif- 
ferent picture. The population of Canada was less than 



The Colonies after the French Wars. 



67 



a hundred thousand whites, all French and all Roman Canada. 
Catholics, the English garrison, of course, excepted. 
The province was administered by a military governor. 




New Orleans and the vast area between the Mississippi Louisiana, 
and the Rocky Mountains were in like manner governed 
by a deputy of the Spanish king. The white flag of the 
Bourbons of France had vanished from America. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND. 



The colonists 
Englishmen. 



Franklin's 
Works, IV., i6i. 



The triumph of England in the long wars with France 
for the possession of America was nowhere more joyously 
greeted than in the American colonies. The colonists 
were thorough Englishmen, proud of the name, enthusi- 
astically loyal. They showed their provincialism in some 
ways, to be sure. They had great reverence for all 
English ideas, merely because they were English — like 
some of their descendants to-day. They had great re- 
spect for British regular soldiers, though they might be 
as dull as Braddock showed himself in 1755. The Eng- 
lish fashions of dress were obediently copied across the 
ocean. A stray Englishman traveling in America was 
treated with vast deference, because he was from 
" home," even if in fact he was a very commonplace and 
stupid individual. King George had no more devoted 
subjects than the Americans. Benjamin Franklin was 
in England in 1766, and was examined before a commit- 
tee of Parliament which was considering the repeal of 
the Stamp Act. Being asked what was the temper of 
the Americans toward Great Britain before the year 
1763, this was his reply : "The best in the world. They 
submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and 
paid in their courts obedience to the acts of Parliament. 
Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, 
they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or 
armies to keep them in subjection. They were governed 



The Separation from England. 



69 



land men. 



Why the 
colonies were 
thrown away. 



by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, 

and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only 

a respect but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, .^okf En?'^ 

its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its 

fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives 

of Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to 

be an Old England man was, of itself, a character of 

some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us." 

But all this devotion was changed to bitter enmity — 
this magnificent empire was thrown away by Great Brit- 
ain — because Charles Townshend had an opinion about 
America, and be- 
cause George III., 
never capable of 
forming an opinion 
of his own, was also 
n e \' e r capable of 
giving up one which 
somebody else had 
formed for him. 

Colonial a ffa i r s 
were managed by a 
committee of the 
British privy council 

under the name of the "Lords of the Committee of 
Trades and Plantations." In 1763 Charles Townshend 
was first lord of trade. He had given much time to a 
study of colonial matters, and it was his opinion that 
the colonies should have less to do with their own gov- 
ernment, that a strong force of British regulars should 
be stationed in America, and that the cost of this estab- 
lishment should be defrayed from a tax levied by Parlia- 
ment on the colonies. 

Grenville was prime minister, and he was hardly pre- 




Old Dutch House at Kingston, N. V. 
This house is said to have been built in 1643 by 
Abram \'an Steenberg, and is supposed to be 
the oldest house in "New York State. It is 
still occupied by members of the family. 



The Lords of 
Trade. 



Townshend 's 
notion. 



70 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Grenville's pre- 
text for taxing 
the colonies. 



Tlie national 
debt. 



Macaulay, 
IV., 410. 



Statesman's 
Year-Book. 



The colonists 
object. 



pared to accept so extreme a program. However, he 
argued that the colonies ought to be taxed, on the 
ground that their defense in the late war had cost large 
sums to the British treasury, and in the spring of 1764 
he carried through the House of Commons a series of 
resolutions declaring the intention of the government to 
levy such tax, beginning the following year, in the shape 
of stamps on certain legal papers. 

It was quite true that the war had been expensive. 
Wars always are costly luxuries. And one result at that 
time had been an enormous increase in the British na- 
tional debt. The funded debt had its origin in the time 
of the good Protestant King William HI, It now 
amounts to about ;^67 1,000, 000, and this vast sum rep- 
resents the cost of the British wars of the last two cen- 
turies over and above the taxes available at the time. At 
the end of the Napoleonic wars, in 18 15, the debt 
reached its maximum, some ^861,000,000. At the be- 
ginning of the war of 1756 the debt was about ;i^75,ooo,- 
000, and in 1763 it had been swollen to ;^i33,ooo,ooo. 
This sum seemed then so enormous as to alarm prudent 
people, and it was not unnatural that the financiers of the 
government began to cast their eyes on the colonies for 
some help in bearing the burden. 

But the proposal of a stamp tax was greeted in Amer- 
ica with decided disapproval. It was not merely the 
natural and universal repugnance to pay taxes, for 
the colonists gave quite solid reasons for their dissent. 

In the first place, they asserted that they had already 
paid even more than their share of the war expenses, as 
had appeared by acts of Parliament reimbursing some of 
these expenditures, and war debts had been incurred by 
colonies as well as by the mother-country. 

However, this was not the main contention. The col- 



The Separation from England. 71 

onists were willing, if the king should ask them for aid, 
to appropriate liberally of their resources for that pur- 
pose. But they declared that Parliament had no legal 
right to tax them at all. Taxation without representa- 
tion was against the fundamental rights of Englishmen, ^^.ft^out" 
and as they had no representatives in Parliament, it fol- representation, 
lowed that the only legal way to levy taxes was by act of 
the various colonial legislatures. 

Franklin carried the argument further. He showed 
that the colonies had all been established in the royal prankiin's 
domain under direct charter of the crown, and in no case Works, iv. 281 
by act of Parliament. Hence, he declared, the colonies 
were joined to England only by the crown, as were Jer- 
sey, Guernsey, Ireland, and Scotland before the union, 
and therefore the only legal taxation was by the colonial 
legislatures on request of the crown. 

The power of Parliament to regulate the external re-_ 
lations of the colonies, including the control of com- 
merce, was not denied. 

Parliament, on the other hand, claimed a direct su- „, . ^„ 

' Claims of Par- 

premacy over all the empire, and denied the king's pre- iiament. 
rogative over the royal domain. In fact, the Revolution 
of 1688 had given Parliament just that position of su- 
premacy at home. It was now practically for the first 
time that its status in the dependencies was fairly consid- 
ered. 

The principle for which the colonists contended was „. ... 

■f^ ^ The principle. 

the same for which Englishmen had always fought, from 
Magna Charta to the Bill of Rights — the principle that 
there should be no taxation without the assent of those 
who were to pay. The House of Commons, indeed, 
owed its existence and its power to the development of 
that very principle. And so it was clear either that the 
colonies should be taxed as they insisted, by their own 



72 



Tlie Growth of the American Nation. 



Representation 
in Parliament. 



Franklin's 
Works, VII 
329, note. 



Fiske, I., 34. 



legislatures, or that there should be colonial representa- 
tives in Parliament. 

The latter alternative was seriously considered by 
some thoughtful minds in both countries. Adam Smith 
favored it, and Franklin worked out a scheme for the 
distribution of representatives both to America and to 
Ireland. But any such scheme was impracticable. If 
an agreement for an apportionment could have been 
reached, the great distance across the Atlantic would 
have proved an insuperable obstacle. Even in these 
days of steam and electricity the federation of the Brit- 
ish Empire has been prevented by the same cause. 
Much more would it have been impossible at a period 
when the time for crossing the ocean was six weeks in- 
stead of six days. 

But the average English politician gave himself little 
trouble with such considerations. If he reasoned on it 
at all he asserted that in fact the Americans were repre- 
sented in Parliament — that they or their ancestors had in 
each case left some British county or borough in which 
they still belonged — that if they wished to vote they had 
only to come home to England for that purpose. 
Anew problem. We ought to remember in discussing this quarrel that 
in truth the problem was a difficult one. The relation 
of a powerful and free colony to the mother-country was 
really a new question in political science. Nothing quite 
like it had ever been heard of before. It is only in the 
present century that it has been settled by England — ■ 
and settled, it may be added, on the principles for which 
the Americans contended in 1765. 

It happened that the personality of the English king 
was to play a prominent part in the grave differences 
which were now growing between the Old World and 
the New. George III. had ascended the throne iti 1760. 



George III. 



The Separation from England. 



73 



His character. 



succeeding his grandfather, George II. The new king 
was a young man who has been thought by some to 
have been the most ignorant monarch with whom Eng- 
land has ever been blessed. This opinion, however, is 
probably hardly just to George. There is no doubt that 
he was very dull, and he certainly was extraordinarily 
obstinate. In his family relations he was quite blame- 
less — rather a rare royal virtue for that day. He was a 
pious gentleman, 
with a brain which 
probably was never 
quite right. He 
finally became in- 
sane, and spent his 
last ten years in 
confinement as a 
lunatic. The plain 
truth is that he was 
always out of place 
on the throne. Had 
fortune been so kind 
as to make him a 
simple country gentleman, he would doubtless have lived He should 
an innocent and contented life, with sound opinions on firmer!^" 
turnips and sheep. 

George's immediate predecessors, his grandfather and 
his great-grandfather, had both been Germans, with lit- 
tle or no knowledge of the English language, and en- 
tirely indifferent to English political ideas. It was owing 
largely to this fact that in their reigns had grown up the 
system of cabinet government, whereby the king became 
little more than a dignified royal effigy — -a mere suit of 
clothes, as Thackeray called George IV. — and the real 
administration was in the hands of the prime minister 




The Old Senate House, Kingston, N. V. 

This house was built in 1676 by Col. Wessel Ten 
Broeck, and is a good specimen of early Dutch 
architecture. The first session of the New York 
State Senate met here in the summer of 1777. 
It is now owned by the state of New York. 



George's polit- 
ical policy. 



74 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Whig dis- 
sensions. 



Bribery and 
corruption. 



Tlie king ap- 
proves of taxing 
America. 



with a majority of the House of Commons at his back. 
Thus the king was about in the position of the good 
clergyman whom his parishioners Hked so well ' ' because 
he never meddled with politics or religion. ' ' 

Now George III. did not at all like this system. His 
mother had from the first steadily instilled in him the 
thought that he should be a real king. And so as soon 
as he reached the throne he began to scheme to govern 
as well as to reign. 

He was aided in this ambition by two circumstances. 
One was the fact that the Whig party, which had now 
for more than half a century ruled England, had become 
broken with faction. Thus the king by taking advantage 
of their discord was enabled to build up a Tory party 
devoted to the extension of royal influence. The other 
circumstance was that Parliament was no longer a really 
representative body. Many boroughs each of which re- 
turned two members had become so devoid of popula- 
tion as to be controlled easily by some influential poli- 
tician. And hence their members could be secured with- 
out difficulty — for a consideration. Again, the members 
were no longer held sharply accountable to their con- 
stituents, and the grossest bribery had come to be a 
matter of course. Thus the king by the use of patron- 
age and direct money bribes was able to secure a sub- 
servient majority to carry out his schemes. 

The plan of taxing America fell in perfectly with the 
king's political aims. If he could secure a revenue by 
which he should be able to maintain a strong standing 
army in the colonies, he would have at hand a means by 
which he might one day put down opposition at home. 
Had the Americans tamely submitted, it is quite likely 
that George would have pushed his prerogative at home 
to such an extent that nothing but revolution would 



The Separation from England. 75 



have displaced him. So the Americans were in truth 
fighting the battles of English liberalism. Washington 
was in the same line with Hampden, with the Prince of 
Orange, and with Earl Grey and Gladstone in our own 
century. 

The Stamp Act was passed in 1765, without regard to The stamp Act, 
the protests of the Americans or to the earnest opposition ^'''^^' 
of such English statesmen as the great commoner, William 
Pitt. But so violent was the storm which this measure 
raised in the colonies that it was found to be utterly im- 
possible to enforce the law, and the government at last 
reluctantly was driven to repeal it. The repeal, how- Repeal 1766 
ever, was made less gracious by an act accompanying it 
which declared it to be the right of Parliament to tax 
the colonies at pleasure. This was in 1766. In the fol- 
lowing year Charles Townshend was chancellor of the rownshend's 
exchequer, and on his own responsibility he brought in ' ' 
a series of acts for taxing imports into the colonies. 
The duties were to be levied on several specified articles, 
including tea. The money thus raised was to be de- 
voted to very significant purposes. It was to pay the 
salaries of the royal governors, of the judges, who were 
to be appointed by the crown and to serve during the 
king's pleasure, and of such other civil officers and pen- 
sionaries as the crown might see fit. It was entirely ob- 
vious that if this plan should be carried out it would put 
the administrative and judicial machinery of colonial 
government at the king's mercy. The power of refus- 
ing to grant supplies to the governor and the independ- 
ence of the judiciary had thus far sufficed to guard the 
freedom of the colonists against the crown. 

It was further provided that there should be estab- writs of 
lished a revenue board to supervise the collection of ^^^'^ ^""' 
the colonial duties, and that general writs of assistance 



76 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Illicit trade. 



The writs 
upheld by the 
courts. 



Renewed 
agitation. 



Opposition to 
all taxes laid by 
Parliament. 



should be lawful. The enforcement of the Navigation 
Acts had not been thorough as far as the colonies were 
concerned until after the accession of George III. The 
trade which had grown up in evasion of these acts was 
of large proportions, both with the West Indies and 
with European nations. In the course of searching for 
contraband goods the British revenue officers had found 
it convenient to obtain from some judge a sort of blanket 
search warrant, called a "writ of assistance," mention- 
ing neither name nor place. As the colonists believed 
in the old doctrine that "the Englishman's house was 
his castle," these warrants were strenuously resisted. 
But in 1 76 1 the Massachusetts court upheld them as 
legal under an old statute of the time of Charles II., 
which was enacted for England. Thus they were now 
specifically legalized for America. 

These acts were received in America with a new storm 
of opposition. Earnest remonstrances were sent to the 
king, and the leading merchants united in a resolution 
to import no more English goods until the obnoxious 
laws should be repealed. It was true that at the time of 
the Stamp Act the Americans had admitted the right of 
Parliament to legislate with reference to commerce, and 
hence, of course, to lay duties on imports. But it was 
now clearly seen that if any sort of tax could be laid on 
the colonies without their assent they would be at the 
mercy of the arbitrary government of the crown. And 
this fact made it perfectly plain that the principle of no 
taxation without representation could have no exceptions. 
The Townshend Acts were an object lesson which only 
the blind could fail to understand. And the Americans 
were not blind. 

Meanwhile Townshend had died, and his place as 
chancellor of the exchequer was taken by Lord North. 



The Separation from England. 



77 



Three years later that amiable nobleman became prime 
minister, a place which he held for fourteen years. As 
he was merely the obedient servant of the king, George 
III. during that period really governed England just as 
he desired. A hundred million pounds added to the 
national debt and the loss of a continent were the net 
results. 

Non-importation bore heavily on British commerce. 
The anticipated returns from the duties had not been 
realized. Violent opposition to the government in all 
the colonies and in Parliament kept public affairs in a 
turmoil. And in the spring the new minister decided to 
repeal the revenue acts. However, he was not willing 
to give up the principle at issue. Accordingly the pre- 
amble, declaratory of the right of Parliament to tax the 
colonies, and the duty on a single article, tea, were 
retained. 

Non-importation had of course hurt America also, 
and when the duties were thus almost wholly removed 
the New York merchants gave way and resumed trade 
with England. But the taxed tea was not an article of 
traffic. That comforting commodity was largely used, 
but nearly all of it was smuggled from Holland. The 
Americans were yet stubborn. 

Finally, the king determined on a test case. The 
East India Company was empowered to export tea to 
America, with a drawback amounting to the entire duty 
of three pence on the pound. Thus the British taxed 
tea would actually cost the Americans less than Dutch 
smuggled tea. "And," said Lord North, "men will 
always go to the cheapest market. ' ' Accordingly the 
company sent consignments simultaneously to Charles- 
ton, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. But the col- 
onists were fully aroused to the situation. If the tea 



Lord North 
prime minister, 
January, 1770. 



Repeal of the 
revenue duties, 
except on tea. 



Non-impor- 
tation breaks 
down. 



The " Boston 
Tea Party," 

1773- 



yS The Groivth of the American N^ation. 

could be landed and sold their case was lost. So they 
determined that there should be none landed. In 
Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York the consignees 
of the tea yielded to public indignation and resigned 
their positions. The Charleston cargo was vniloaded by 
the collector of the port, but as no one would pay the 
duty, and no one would sell the tea, it was stored in cel- 
lars, where presently the dampness ruined it. The Phil- 
adelphia and New York ships were sent back to England 
without landing their freight at all. In Boston the con- 
signees would not resign. But the excited people re- 
fused to allow the tea to be brought on shore, and when 
there approached the last of the twenty days allowed 
by law at the end of which time the collector might land 
the goods, in a cold December night a mob disguised as 
uecember i6. Moliawk Indians boarded the ships and threw all the tea 
overboard. 

Thus the attempt to force the tea tax on America ig- 
nominiously failed. The British government received 
the news with the utmost indignation, and measures 
were at once taken to bring the refractory inhabitants of 
Massachusetts to their senses. Five bills were brought 

The five abom- . n i- i t i tvt i 11 11 

iiiabie acts, 1774. mto rarliamcnt by Lord North, antl they passed by 
large majorities. The first closed the port of Boston ; 
the second annulled the charter of Massachusetts, j^ut- 
ting that colony under the absolute authority of the 
crown ; the third provided that any British official in- 
dicted for murder in Massachusetts should be tried in 
England ; the fourth made it lawful to quarter troops on 
citizens ; the fifth, known as the Quebec Act, permitted 
the free exercise of the Roman Catholic worship in Can- 
ada, and at the same time extended the boundaries of 
that province to the Ohio River. This last provision, it 
was thought, would effectually prevent the westward ex- 



The Separation froDi England. 79 



The people of 



tension of the refractory English colonies. And to 
carry out this stern legislation General Gage was sent to 
Boston with large reenforcements for the garrison. 

But the people of Massachusetts were in no mood to 
submit to pure tyranny. The act annulling their charter Massachusetts 
was set at defiance. No officers who accepted positions 
imder the new government were allowed to act, and 
many of them were compelled to resign. Correspond- 
ence went on actively with the other colonies, and militia 
was organized to be ready in case Gage should attempt 
force. 

The other colonies sympathized with Massachusetts, 
and felt that she was fighting their battles as well. And 
they promptly acceded to the call for a continental 
congress. 

Such a convention had been held in 1765, at which xhe stamp Act 
nine colonies had been represented. The delegates of Congress, 
twelve colonies now met at Philadelphia to consider what 
united action could betaken. They adopted a declara- unentarcon- ' 
tion of rights, recommended non-intercourse with the bern'774^.'^ ^'" 
mother-country, and drew up addresses to the king and 
to the people of Great Britain and of America. A sec- 
ond congress was then called for the following May, and 
the delegates adjourned. 

But before the new convention thus called could meet, p^^^^^ ^^^^^j^ ^^ 
words had given place to blows. Gage determined to '''°^s- 
arrest Hancock and Samuel Adams, the main leaders of 
the Massachusetts people, and to seize the military stores 
which the patriots had begun to gather in Concord. 
With that purpose he sent out a detachment of infantry 
on the night of the iSth of April, 1775. At sunrise the 
following morning their advance encountered on Lexing- 
ton Green a company of militia, paraded under arms. ApriTf9°'i775. 
Major Pitcairn, the British commander, promptly fired 



So 



The Grozi'th of the American Nation. 



War and 
independence. 



Th^ flight from 
Lexington. 



Siege of 
Boston. 



Little thought 
of independ- 



The first 
attack on the 
center. 
The British 
take New 
York, 1776. 



his pistols at these "rebels," and then scattered them by 
a volley from his men. 

This was war. The last legal means had been used. 
Only physical force remained. The colonists either had 
the rights of free-born Englishmen, or they were mere 
slaves to the British government ; and the decision now 
could come only by battle. Reconciliation was no longer 
possible. The Declaration of Independence and the 
treaty in which King George at last ga\'e up his colonies 
forever were only the logical sequence of the Stamp Act. 
And the real victory was that of the English people over 
a Hanoverian James II. 

The expedition to Concord succeeded in destroying 
some military stores. But the colonists were aroused on 
all sides, and assembled in so great numbers and 
assailed the invaders with so spontaneous a fierceness 
that the latter were fairly driven back to Boston. Then 
at once Gage's army was besieged in that city by an 
impromptu army of insurgents. In July, George 
Washington, whom Congress had put at the head of 
the continental armies, took command of the besieging 
forces. But it was not until the following March that 
the British were compelled to evacuate the city. 

At the outset, neither side expected a serious war. 
The colonists took up arms merely to secure a redress 
of grievances, with no thought of independence. But 
the British ministry could not yield to ' ' rebels, ' ' and so 
made strenuous exertions to crush the revolt. When 
this became clear in America, Congress adopted resolu- 
tions declaring American independence. 

In the summer after the evacuation of Boston, a 
powerful British army and fleet attacked New York. 
Washington had an inferior force, and was easily dis- 
lodged from the city. He was obliged to retreat 



The Sepa) at ion from England. 



through New Jersey, and that state was overrun by the 

British armies. The plan was to seize the Middle States New jersey 

and thus to cut the insurrectionary territory in two. 

And it ^'ery nearly succeeded. But in December the ton drives'tWe 

genius of Washington sufficed to outgeneral the enemy New York. 

and in turn to drive them back to New York. 

In the following summer the plan of the British was 








Reduced Facsimile of the Last Line of the Declaration of 

Independence, in Jefferson's Handwriting, with 

THE First Three Signatures. 

again taken up. This time a strong army under The second 

J ^ attack on the 

General Burgoyne came irom Canada and set out tor center. 

BursrovnG's 

Albany. It was intended that General Howe should invasion, 1777. 
ascend the Hudson from New York, and that the two 
armies should unite at Albanv. But Howe foolishly 

/ 1 1 • r Howe foolishly 

got it uito his head that it would be a good thing hrst to moves on pwia- 

capture the rebel capital, Philadelphia. This he finally 

succeeded in doing, but it took so much time that he 

could do nothing substantial to help Burgoyne. That 

unfortunate general was surrounded by greatly superior 

forces of the Americans, and after a gallant struggle was lurgoj^rfe*! ^7*77. 

compelled to surrender his entire army, at Saratoga. 



82 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Conquest of the 
Northwest. 



This great victory ended the notable British plan of 
cutting the center. It had another important effect. 
France yet smarted under her great defeat by the British 
in 1758 and 1759, and was eager for revenge. The 
surrender of Burgoyne showed that the insurgents were 
quite likely to maintain their independence, and so the 
French government was induced to form a treaty of 
alliance with the United States. This gave the struggling 
patriots the help of a great military nation, and in the 
end led to a successful issue of the war. 

When the British government began to fear that 
France would join with the rebellious colonies, the 
stubborn pride which had thus far inspired the American 
policy was replaced by saner counsels. The colonies 
were offered everything which they had originally de- 
manded. But it was too late. Independence was now 
inevitable. And so the war went on. Howe evacuated 
Philadelphia, apprehending attack by a French army 
and fleet, and concentrated his forces in New York. 
Thereafter the British ministry merely aimed to worry 
the Americans by incessant petty operations, and to 
save from the wreck what fragments seemed most avail- 
able. 

In pursuance of the first scheme the Indians were in- 
duced to assail the Americans along all the forest frontier. 
The Virginians, exasperated by these operations, sent an 
expedition under General George Rogers Clarke into the 
Indian country. Clarke captured the British posts in 
Illinois and Indiana, and thus occupied all the territory 
between the Great Lakes and the Ohio. This proved a 
most important conquest, as otherwise when peace came 
to be made the Ohio and not the lakes would have been 
our northern frontier. 

To carry out the second branch of the scheme of min- 



The Separation from England. 



83 



Surrender of 
Cornwallis, 



isters, an army was sent to the extreme South, where The war in the 
there were many loyahsts. Georgia and South Carolina 
were conquered. But in 1780 General Greene, the 
American commander, succeeded in decoying Cornwallis, 
with the main British army of the South, into a long and 
fruitless march into North Carolina. Then when Corn- 
wallis pushed on into Virginia, Greene left him and 
threw his army in South Carolina. He then succeeded 
in reconquering both that state and Georgia. 

Meanwhile a powerful French fleet and army had ar- 
rived on the coast. Washington, by a most skilful 
movement, succeeded in throwing the combined army 
into Virginia before the enemy knew his objects. Corn- 
wallis was surrounded at Yorktown, the French fleet 
blocking up the exit by sea, and in October, 1781, the 
British army was obliged to surrender. 

This victory put an end to the war. In the following 
year a treaty of peace was negotiated, which was ratified 
in 1783. The independence of the United States was 
acknowledged. 

In the course of the negotiations the French would 
have been quite willing to limit the frontiers of the new 
republic, suggesting that the British possessions extend 
south to the Ohio, and that in the West a belt of neutral 
territory, to be held by the Indians, intervene between 
the United States and British America. But the Ameri- 
can commissioners held firmly to the lake frontier, and 
they were successful.* 

* The map on page qo shows the French proposal. Had it been adopted, 
the resuh would have been to cut the United States off from expansion west- 
ward. Fortunatelv, the victorious campaign of General George Rogers 
Clarke had put the Northwest already under the American flag (see p. 82). 



Treaty of peace, 

1783- ■ 



The boundaries 
of the republic. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE EVOLUTIOX OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 



How the colo- 
nics came to 



Franklin's plan 
of union, 1754. 



References. — Bancroft : United Slates ; Fiske : A Critical 
Period in American History ; McMaster : History of the People 
of the United States, Vol. I. ; Curtis : Constitutional History of 
the United States ; Bancroft: History of the Constitution. 

Seventeen hundred sixty-three witnessed univer- 
sal rejoicing in America over the British triumphs in 
the war just closed. In 1776 the same colonists threw 
off with indignation the yoke of English tyranny. Loy- 
alty and affection for England had been changed to bit- 
ter enmity by a systematic course of arrogant misgov- 
ernment. 

It has been thought necessary to give only a brief 
account of the military operations of the Revolutionary 
War. But it is of great importance to trace, at least in 
outline, the way in which the colonies came to unite for 
common action. 

The common interests of the colonies were not numer- 
ous before the middle of the eighteenth century. The 
French wars were a danger, however, which called for 
united effort. But this union was very hard to secure. 
In 1754 a conference of commissioners from several of 
the colonies was held at Albany, and here Franklin pro- 
posed a scheme for a united government. It was not a 
bad plan — decidedly better, in fact, than the Confedera- 
tion afterwards adopted. But nobody liked it, either in 
England or America, and so it was dropped. 

The Stamp Act was the next common danger which 



The Evolution of Natio7ial Government. 



85 



threatened, and again a conference was held, the dele- The stamp Act 
gates of nine colonies meeting in New York and adopt- Congress, 1765. 
ing resolutions of protest and memorials to the king and 
Parliament. But of course this conference, like that of 
1754, was merely ephemeral. 
When Massachusetts was made an example by the 

- . . , . , , The First Con- 

crown for its resistance to the tax on tea, again the colo- tinentai Con- 
nies felt they were all in danger alike, and a congress 
was called which met at Philadelphia in September. Of 
course again this meeting, like its predecessors, was a 
mere conference, without authority to bind anybody. 
But it was a sore disappointment to the king. He had 
hoped that he could deal with Massachusetts alone, and 
was quite sure that 
the other colonics 
would not stir. The 
convention took 
what action seemed 
necessary, and be- 
fore adjourning pro- 
vided for a second 
general congress, to 
be held in the follow- 
ing May. 

It will be noticed 
that each of these 
gatherings was 
called a ' 'congress, 
not a ' ' parliament. 
Had there been con- 
nected with them 
any idea of autliority 

to govern, the latter term, or perhaps "legislature," 
would have been used. The name congress was com- 




" Congress," 
not " Parlia- 
ment." 



I.NDEPENDENCti HaLL, l'lllL.-\DliL['llIA. 



86 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



The Second 
t'ontiiiciital 
Congress, 1775. 



Congress 
assumes the 
powers of 
government. 



A revolutionary 
government. 



mon in European diplomacy, applied to nieetino;.s of 
sovereigns or llicir ambassadors for consultation, with 
no power to bind any one to action. 

When the second general convention of the colonies 
met in Philadelphia in May, 1775, it wa.s confronted with 
the fact that war had actually begun. Blood had been 
shed at Lexington, and the British troops in Boston 
were held closely besieged by the New Englanders. The 
flames of revolt had burst out in every colony. It was 
plain that the only hope of success lay in concerted ac- 
tion, and there was no governmental machinery provided 
for that purpose. Accordingly tlie congress, by mere 
force of circumstances, assumed the functions of a general 
government. It proceeded to organize a continental 
army, most wisely and fortunately selecting George 
Washington as its commander. It recommended the 
colonies to form governments of their own, independent 
of the crown. It made what provision it could for getting 
money and munitions of war. When the fi.ved determi- 
nation of the British government to sulijugate the colo- 
nies was a]:)parent, when all suggestions of accommoda- 
tion had been rejected, and Cierman soldiers had been 
hired to help destroy the liberties of America, the con- 
gress resolved that independence was expedient. But it 
did not venture to take formal action until the colonies 
had been consulted. With their approval, it formally 
adopted a declaration of independence, and at the same 
time set on foot two other necessary measures — the se- 
curing of foreign alliances and the adoption of a settled 
form of government for the United States. 

It will thus be seen that the conference of the colonies 
had, by tacit consent, been converted into a government. 
It was a revolutionary government, and by that very fact 
had no defined powers. Thus it was at once stronger 



The Evolution of National Government. 



87 



and weaker than a constitutional government. It was 
stronger because there was no limit in law as to what it 
could do. It was weaker because, in fact, it had no 
means of compelling 
obedience. It could 
only advise and urge 
the states to certain 
lines of action. 

The most difficult 
problem of the revo- 
lutionary congress was 
finance. As there was 
no power to levy taxes, 
the resources of the 
treasury were very un- 
certain. The states 
were requested for con- 
tributions — which were 
given or withheld, as 
local whims might de- 
cide. After the alli- 
ance with France 
seemed to insure inde- 
pendence, some loans were negotiated abroad. In many 
cases supplies were taken for the army in return for mere 
receipts, which it was hoped would be honored when 
peace should come. 

liut the most obvious method of tiding over the emer- 
gency was the issue of bills of credit, which were to pass 
as currency. This continental currency at first was 
taken readily. But as million after million was printed, 
as the credit of the congress appeared more and more 
doubtful, the purchasing j)ower of the paper notes sank 
lower and lower, until at last it grew so worthless that 




Liberty Bell, Indkpendence Hall, 
Philadelphia. 
It was the ringing of this bell which gave 
notice to the assembled people in the streets 
that the Declaration of Independence had 
been adopted. 



The continental 
currency. 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Fiske, "Ameri- 
can Revo- 
lution," II., iq8 



A settled con- 
stitution. 



The League of 
Friendship. 



"not worth a continental" became a common expression 
for utter nullity. "During the summer of 1780 this 
wretched ' continental ' currency fell into contempt. As 
Washington said, it took a wagon-load of money to buy 
a wagon-load of provisions. At the end of the year 
1778 the paper dollar was worth sixteen cents in the 
Northern States and twelve cents in the South. Early 
in 1780 its value had fallen to two cents, afid before the 
end of the year it took ten paper dollars to make a cent. 
In October Indian corn sold wholesale in Boston for $150 
a bushel, butter was $12 a pound, tea $90, sugar $10, 
beef $8, coffee $12, and a barrel of flour cost $1,575. 
Samuel Adams paid $2,000 for a hat and a suit of clothes. 
The money soon ceased to circulate, debts could not be 
collected, and there was a general prostration of credit. 
A barber in Philadelphia papered his shop with 
bills, and a dog was led up and down the streets smeared 
with tar, with this unhappy money sticking all over him." 

On the 7th of June, 1776, there were introduced in the 
Continental Congress the famous resolutions beginning, 
" That these united colonies are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent states. " The third resolution 
was, ' ' That a plan of confederation be prepared and 
transmitted to the respective colonies, for their considera- 
tion and approbation." No argument was needed to 
show that if independence was to be maintained there 
must be a permanent union and an authoritative govern- 
ment. 

But the exigencies of war prevented immediate action 
on this subject. It was not until November of 1777, in- 
deed, that the congress finally adopted a draft of a con- 
stitution which it called ' ' Articles of Confederation and 
Perpetual Union," and which was sent to the states for 
ratification. 



The Evolution of National Government. 89 

By these articles there was established a league of xhe Ankles of 
friendship and a confederate government. The govern- °" ^ *^''^"°"- 
ment consisted merely in a Congress of the United 
States, to which each state might send from two to seven 
delegates, as it should choose. Each state had one vote 
in the Congress, thus disregarding differences of wealth 
and population. This provision was naturally adopted in 
the conferences called congresses preceding the war, had 
as of course been followed in the war congress, and now 
was made part of the constitution. The Confederate 
Congress was to have no power to levy taxes of any 
kind, but for its financial needs was merely to request 
each state to pay its due proportion. There was no 
executive and no regular judiciary. No important law 
could be enacted without the affirmative vote of two 
thirds of the states in Congress, and the constitution 
could not be amended without the approval of Congress 
and the subsequent assent of all the states. 

This frame of p:o\ernment was very slight. But at „ .^ .. 

* y iri Ratification. 

least it was a common government for all the states, and 
provided for a perpetual union. Should it be adopted, • 
the informal and wholly voluntary concord of the states 
in their resistance to Great Britain would be converted 
into a definite and legal confederacy. 

By 1780, all the states had assented to the articles but The western 
Maryland. Her objection was the lands west of the '^" ^" 
Alleghenies which some of the states claimed. 

The original charters, in the breezy way in which popes 
and kings then disposed of the earth, made the land 
grants extend westward to the South Sea. By the treaty 
with France, in 1763, England relinquished her claims 
west of the Mississippi. Then Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia claimed to ex- 
tend as far as that river. New York claimed what was 



See p. 82. 



Fears of 
Maryland. 



90 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



north of the Ohio, on the ground of a treaty with the 
Indians. But in 1778 Virginia had sent an expedition 
under Gen. George Rogers Clarke against the British 
posts in the IlUnois country, and had succeeded in tak- 
ing actual possession of the vast territory between the 
Ohio and the lakes. It was now apprehended by Mary- 
land that these rich western lands would make the states 
owning them so wealthy and powerful that the other states 
in the Confederacy would be oppressed. Accordingly 




Cession of the 
lands. 



The treaty of 
peace, 17S3. 



her delegates were instructed not to ratify the Articles 
unless the lands in question should be ceded to the en- 
tire union. New York and Virginia set the example of 
taking this patriotic action, and the other states followed. 
Assured of this result, Maryland ratified, in 1781, and 
thus the Articles of Confederation went into effect. 

Peace was made with England in 1783. The in- 
dependence of the United States was recognized. The 



The Evolutio7i of National Goverjiment. gi 

Great Lakes and the Mississippi were made the bound- 
aries on the north and west. Thus the new nation had 
won its hberty and had an ample domain for future 
growth. 

But peace did not mean prosperity. The war had 
shattered business. The states were heavily in debt. Social dis- 

T-) 1 11- 1 1 1 • " organization. 

Rebellion, although success had made it revolution, yet 
had taught the people turbulence and lawlessness. And 
the confusion and distress of the next half dozen years 
showed conclusively that without an adequate govern- 
ment civil society can make no assured progress. 

The Articles of Confederation proved utterly ineffect- 
ive. The new republic could not make satisfactory treaty The Confeder- 

. . . , -^ ■ ation a failure. 

arrangements with foreign nations, because it had no 
power either to carry out an agreement or to retaliate 
for injuries. One article of the treaty with England pro- 
vided that Congress should use its influence to secure 
the payment of private debts due to Englishmen. But 
it turned out that Congress had no influence, and the 
debts were not paid. In consequence the British refused 
to give up military posts which they held in the West. 
American merchant ships were captured by the Barbary 
privates with impunity. Congress had no money to 
bribe them and no navy to fight them. 

The states quarreled incessantly. As they had the 
sole right of levying duties on imports, they set out to ^'^^ states. 
compete with one another for foreign commerce, each 
hoping to build up its own trade at the expense of its 
neighbors'. And not content with this they taxed im- 
ports from other states. New York laid a duty on the 
products of New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey 
retaliated by taxing the New York lighthouse on Sandy 
Hook. New Hampshire and New York nearly came to 
blows over their conflicting claims to Vermont. Pennsyl- 



92 



The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



The treasury 
bankrupt. 



Rag money in 
Rhode Island, 



McMaster, 
I-. 331- 



Shays' Rebel- 
Uon, 1786. 



vania and Connecticut wrangled over the title to land in 
the valley of Wyoming. 

Meanwhile notmerely was the national debt, over $50,- 
000,000, unpaid, but no provision whatever was made for 
either principal or interest. Congress tried hard enough 
to get the money. But the states did not pay their 
shares. Of some $8,000,000 due on requisitions of Con- 
gress from 1 78 1 to 1783, less than $500,000 had been 
paid in the latter year. The first installment of the pub- 
lic debt was due in 1787. At that time only New York 
and Pennsylvania had paid their quotas in full. New 
Hampshire and North Carolina had paid nothing. And 
in 1786 New Jersey flatly refused to pay a cent. And of 
course, in consequence, the public credit was so low that 
a loan could not be effected. 

In several of the states discontent and lawlessness were 
rife. Everybody was in debt, everybody was poor, every- 
body grumbled. The people of Rhode Island thought 
they had hit on a solution of their troubles when they 
issued a legal tender paper currency. Any farmer could 
borrow this from the public treasury on security of one 
half the appraised value of his land. But at once depre- 
ciation began, and the legislature passed the most frantic 
laws in the attempt to keep their rag money at par. Of 
course they failed — as all fiat money devices always have 
failed and always will fail. In Massachusetts riots broke 
out against the courts which were enforcing the collec- 
tion of debts by legal process. And the disturbances 
culminated in organized insurrection which was only 
quelled by military force. 

Repeated attempts had been made to amend the 
Articles of Confederation so as to give the general gov- 
ernment a revenue and some little power. But as the 
objection of a single state sufficed to defeat amendment. 



The Evolution of N^ational Government. 



93 



it had proven impossible to secure any improvement. 

The simple truth was that the imbecile structure of 
government made the success of the republic impossible. 
The country was fast drifting towarci anarchy and civil 
war. The best friends of America in Europe despaired 
of the possibility of the perpetuity of the new nation. 
And George III. had no doubt at all that in a short time 
the states would be begging on their knees to come back 
under his benign sway. 

It was under these discouraging and alarming circum- 
stances that in the spring of 1787 a convention met at 
Philadelphia to see if the crazy structure of government 
under the Articles of Confederation could be amended. 
Maryland and Virginia had had trouble about the navi- 
gation of the Potomac. In 1785 commissioners of those 
states met to adjust the difficulties. It soon appearing 
that there were questions involved which went beyond 
the two states, the commissioners advised that a general 
conference be held to see what could be done in the 
interest of commerce. This conference was held at An- 
napolis in the following year, being attended by dele- 
gates from only h\'e states. They did not feel like 
acting, inasmuch as they were so few, but adopted a 
recommendation for a convention of all the states to be 
held at Philadelphia in 1787 to consider and report on 
the question of improving the existing frame of govern- 
ment. Congress was led to sanction the meeting, and 
all the states but Rhode Island appointed delegates. 

The emergency was so grave that the states generally 
selected their strongest men. Of the fifty-five delegates 
who at one time or other were present, upwards of 
thirty were lawyers, including some of the ablest jurists 
in America. The great name of Washington at once 
commanded respect for the convention, while such men 



General 
collapse. 



What George 
III. thought. 



The convention 

of 1787. 



The Annapolis 
conference, 1786. 



The Phila- 
delphia con- 
vention, 1787. 



The delegates. 



94 



The Growth of the American Natio7i. 



A new consti- 
tution. 



The plans. 



The difficulties. 



as Madison from Virginia, Hamilton from New York, 
Franklin and Wilson from Pennsylvania, would have 
made any assembly illustrious. Washington was chosen 
president, and it was decided to sit with closed doors. 
No sooner was the problem of the convention fairly 

stated than it was 
clear to the majority 
that it was idle to at- 
tempt amendment. A 
new plan altogether 
was much more feas- 
ible. 

The plan offered 
by New Jersey dele- 
gates would have pre- 
served the independ- 
ence of the states, 
merely strengthening 
somewhat the central 
government. The 
plan of the Virginia 
delegates formed a 
much stronger gen- 
eral government, with 
a distinct executive 
and judiciary, and a 
It was this latter plan which 




Old South Church, Boston. 
A light in the belfry of this church in the night 
of .\i)ril iS, 1775, gave warning to the patriots 
that the British expedition had set out for 
Concord. 



congress of two houses 

the convention modified and adopted. 

The main difficulties of the convention were how to 
reconcile conflicting interests. In the first place, the 
small states were jealous of the relative weight of the 
large states. Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
North Carolina, the most populous states, insisted that 
in both Houses of Congress representation should be 



The Evolution of National Government. 95 



proportioned to population. The small states, aided by The large states 
some votes from those of medium position, insisted that states.*^ ^"'^' 
in each House every state should have one vote, irre- 
spective of population. On this issue the convention 
was nearly wrecked, for feeling ran high, and both sides 
were obstinate. But the dispute was settled by the com- 
promise offered by the Connecticut delegates, whereby 
there was to be equal representation in the Senate and rep- JiJi^comp"™-"' 
resentation according to population in the Lower House. ™'^'^- 

The second serious dispute related to the status of 
negroes as related to political representation. Slaves 
were held in nearly all the states, but it was only south 
of Pennsylvania that they were a large part of the com- xheenumer- 
munity. Accordingly South Carolina and Georgia in- aiion of slaves, 
sisted that in estimating population for the apportionment 
of representation the negroes should be counted. 
Northern delegates insisted as strenuously that if they 
were held as property they should not count as men. It 
was agreed finally that the negroes should be counted, 
both for representation and for direct taxes, but only at ]y,^jjso„.<- 
the rate of five negroes as equivalent to three white men. compromise. 
This was Madison's plan. 

The third dispute related to the control of Congress 
over commerce. The Northern States wanted Congress 
to have full power of legislation on commercial regu- 
lation, and at the same time they were eager to put an 
end to the slave trade. The far South opposed both commerce and 
propositions, and South Carolina flady refused to assent ^'^<^ '^'^^^ "■^''^• 
to the constitution should the slave trade be forbidden. 
This also was settled by compromise. Congress was -j-be third 
given power to regulate commerce, and the slave trade compromise, 
was not to be prohil)ited before 1808. 

These three compromises had far-reaching effects. 
The equal representation of the states in the Senate 



96 



The Groivth of the American Nation. 



Results of the 
compromises. 



The 

compromises 

necessary. 



Essential ideas 
of the new plan. 



has made it possible for a group of ' ' rotten borough ' ' 
states to endanger the prosperity of the whole country. 
The concession of the three fifths ratio for slavery in- 
trenched that institution in the constitution, and was 
' ' the beginning of woes ' ' in the long train of sinister 
strife which ended in the Civil War and in the miseries of 
the reconstruction epoch. On the other hand, if Con- 
gress had been denied the power to regulate commerce, 
the federal government would have lacked little of the 
imbecility of the Confederation. 

But whatever we may think about the propriety of the 
compromises, one thing we may as well keep in mind — 
without them the constitiition zvould never have been made. 
The Confederation could not have lasted. A cluster of 
discordant and weak republics, incessant wars, the pre- 
dominance on this continent of Great Britain — these 
would have been the epitome of our history for the last 
century had the constitution failed. The compromises 
and their results are the price we have paid for national 
existence and national glory. 

Other difficulties were settled without serious trouble, 
and in September the convention sent their draft of a 
constitution to Congress, and adjourned. 

The new plan of government differed from the old in 
vital particulars. There was provided a definite frame 
of government, with a powerful executive and a dis- 
tinct federal judiciary. The powers granted to this 
government made it a substantial and independent real- 
ity. Congress could lay and collect taxes without de- 
pending on the caprice of the states. The federal con- 
stitution and laws were made supreme over state enact- 
ments. The federal court was bound to apply this su- 
preme law of the land, and the federal executi\-e was 
enabled to enforce it. 



The Evolution of Akxtional Goveruuient. 97 



The constitution provided that it should be passed on 
by state conventions elected for that purpose, not by the 
existing legislatures, and that it should go into effect 
when ratified by nine states. As the elections proceeded 
it was evident that very few people were really satisfied. Action of the 
Some thought the constitution established too strong a ^'^'^'^s- 
government ; others thought it too weak. New York 
was bitterly opposed to it. The Massachusetts conven- 
tion was carried for ratification only with great difficulty. 
Rhode Island and North Carolina refused to ratify at all, 
and only came into the Union after Washington had for 
some time been president. But in one way or another 
eleven states were induced to ratify, and Congress or- 
dained that the new machinery of government should go 
into operation with the oiDcning months of the year 1780. J°^" Quincy 

^ _ , y / ? Adams said : 

The Articles of Confederation provided that there " T^e consti- 

'■ tution was ex- 

should be no amendment without the uuLinimous consent ?"'''^d by grind- 
ing necessity 

of the states. The Articles were set aside and a new or- f''om a reluctant 

people. 

ganic law put in force against the will of two of the states. 
Hence it is plain that the action by which the constitu- 
tion was adopted and enforced was, leo-allv speakintr, as T'^*^ adoption of 

^ . o y 1 & tjjg constitution 

much a revolution as was that of 1775. Fortunately this ^ revolution. 
revolution was accomplished without bloodshed. But it 
is just as well to remember that it zvas a revolution. The 
eleven states simply seceded from the Confederation and 
formed a new government. 

But our national life begins with the revolution of ^, ,^ . . 

Y _ 1 he beginning 

17S9. Until 1 78 1 the colonies were entirely independent of national life. 
of one another, only acting together by common consent. 
From 1 78 1 to 1789 the states formed a loose and dis- 
cordant confederacy. Since 1789 there has been an 
American nation. 



98 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



SUMMARY OF PART II. 



TliL- colonies 
finnlv estab- 
lishfil. 



Taxation leads 
111 war. 



Congresses. 



Indciiendencc. 



The French 
al iaiicc. 



Peace. 



When the French wars ended in the expulsion of 
France from American soil, the English colonies had be- 
come firmly established. They had a considerable popu- 
lation, carried on a successful commerce and agriculture, 
and had a vigorous local life. Withal they were warmly 
attached to the mother-country. 

But the great wars had plunged Great Britain deeply 
in debt. And ministers, casting about for ways and 
means, bethought themselves of shifting a part of the 
burden on the American colonists. To this the Ameri- 
cans flatly refused to submit, partly because they had 
already done their share, but mainly because they de- 
nied the taxing power of a j^arliament in which the colo- 
nies were not represented. As the British government 
stubbornly persi.sted in its policy, words finally led to 
blows, and in 1775 oi)en war began. 

The colonies held a series of conferences, called con- 
gresses, for the consideration of common concerns. And 
the Continental Congress of 1775 assumed the authority 
of a general government. 

At the outset the Americans took up arms merely for 
the redress of grievances. But after a year of war pub- 
lic feeling had become so exasperated that independence 
of Great Britain was formally declared. 

The failure of Burgoyne's invasion in 1777, and the 
capture of his whole army by the Americans, convinced 
France that the " rebels" would finally succeed, and so 
the old enemy of England joined in the war as an ally 
of the United States. Largely by French aid the war 
was brought to an end, and Great Britain was obliged to 
recognize the independence of the revolted colonies. 

While the war was in progress, the states adopted a 



Siimrnajy of Part II. 99 

constitution of government, called "Articles of Con- 
federation. ' ' This proved a very loose and weak device, Jhe Articles of 

^ ■' Confederation. 

and under it the states, when the war came to an end, 
were in a state of discord nearly approaching anarchy. 
They had originally been entirely separate one from an- 
other, and had been brought together only by the com- 
mon danger. The critical state of affairs finally led to 
the appointment of delegates to a general convention for 
the revision of the Articles of Confederation. This con- 
vention, meeting at Philadelphia in 1787, formed an en- 
tirely new constitution which provided a strong govern- 
ment. This constitution was ratified by the states, al- Theconstitu- 
though many were reluctant, and went into operation in 
1789. 

Thus the folly of the British government drove the 
colonies into revolt, and persistence in the same stupid The colonies 

. . driven to be- 

policy changed the revolt mto a war of independence, come a nation. 
The necessity of mutual help in the war compelled union. 
And after victory was won the pressing dangers of an- 
archy and possible civil war forced the states to draw 
their union closer and to convert their loose Confedera- 
tion into a real nation. In other words, the scattered 
colonics became a compact nation, not from the prevision 
and deliberate building of statesmanship, but simply by 
the sheer compulsion of unforeseen events. 



PART III. 

THE DOMINANCE OF FOREIGN 
RELATIONS. 



PART III-THE DOMINANCE OF FOREIGN 
RELATIONS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NATION. 

References. — Schouler : United States, Vol. I. ; Hildreth : 
United States, Vol. I. ; McMaster, Vol. I. ; Lodge's Harnitton 
and Morse's Jefferson, in the Statesmen Series ; Marshall : 
Life of Washington. 

The constitution havino- been ratified by the requisite . . 

*> -' 1 .Action of the 

number of states, it devolved on the Congress of the o'd Congress. 
expiring Confederation to make proper arrangements for 
setting the new government in motion. Accordingly an 
act of September, 1788, provided that electors should 
be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, that the 
electors should vote for president and vice-president on 
the first Wednesday in February, and that the new Con- 
gress should meet on the first Wednesday in March, 
1789. The last date happened to fall on the 4th. The 
elections were duly held, electors in nearly all the states 
being chosen by the legislatures. Senators and mem- 
bers of the Lower House were elected in the various 
states ; the electors met in February and unanimously 

Election of 

chose George Washington president, with John Adams Washington. 
as vice-president. In March the members of Congress 
began to assemble in New York, the temporary capital. 
But it was not until April that a quorum of the Senate 
was in attendance and the electoral votes could be 
counted. By the time that Washington and Adams had 



I04 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The executive 

departments. 



^^ 



been notified of their election and had come to the seat 
Inauguration of of sfovemment the rest of the month was nearly p-one. 

government. ^ , . . 

It was on April 30 that the first president was inaugurated, 
with a simple but dignified ceremonial. 

The national legislature and the head of the executive 
branch were now ready for duty. It remained to organ- 
ize the executive departments and the judiciary. 

It was agreed that the departments should be three — 

state, war, treasury. The old Congress had had quite 

- - -^ enough of execu- 

X ti ve boards, which 

\ had merely bred 

l^ '* quarrels and 

\) '■ , feeble ad minis- 

tration. So each 
executive depart- 
ment was placed 
under a single 
person, who was 
called a secre- 
tary. 

The judiciary 
act of the First 
Congress was 
framed by a com- 
mittee of the Sen- 
ate, of which 
Judge Ellsworth, of Connecticut, a member of the Con- 
stitutional Convention, was chairman. It provided for 
a supreme court of six justices, and for district courts, as 
a rule each state forming a district. Circuit courts were 
to be held, a supreme justice sitting with a district judge 
in each. An attorney-general was also provided. It 
was not at first intended that he should give his whole 




The judiciary. 



■■"^ 



George Washington. From Houdon's bust. 



The Organization of the Nation. 105 

time to public duties, and indeed in the early years he 
came only occasionally to the seat of government, spend- 
ing the most of his time in his private business. 

The constitution provided that appointments to the .^^^^ removing 
principal offices of state should be made by the presi- po^'^er- 
dent with the advice and consent of the Senate. In dis- 
cussing the bills for the executive departments the ques- 
tion arose whether the president could' remove an ad- 
ministrative officer whose appointment required the ap- 
proval of the Senate, without consulting that body. The 
independence of the president was secured only by the 
casting vote of the vice-president. But that was suffi- 
cient to establish a precedent which was followed until 
after the Civil War. 

It should be observed that in establishing executive „, , . , 

'-' The cabinet. 

departments Congress had no idea of creating a cabinet. 
An executive council was not contemplated by the con- 
stitution, indeed the suggestion being negatived by the 
Philadelphia convention. Washington advised freely 
with the heads of departments, but it was individually, 
not collectively, and often in writing. And he consulted 
quite as freely the attorney-general, the chief justice, 
and the vice-president. It was not until nearly the end 
of his first term that in the emergency caused by the 
European war he convened a meeting of heads of de- 
partments for consultation. And this was the beginning 
of the American cabinet — a body wholly extra-legal and 
merely advisory, without a particle of authority. Thus 
it is wholly unlike a European cabinet. 

Washington's selections for appointment were highly 
judicious. His criteria were three — integrity, capacity, 
conspicuousness. He also incidentally considered geo- .^^^ ^^^^^ 
graphical distribution. As secretary of state he chose schouiLrlL','108. 
Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, whose able legislative and 



io6 The Growth of the American Nation. 



diplomatic services made him eminently fit. Alexander 
Hamilton, of New York, was appointed secretary of the 
treasury. The ofiice was first offered to Robert Morris, 
the famous revolutionary financier, but he declined and 
recommended Hamilton. Gen. Henry Knox, of Massa- 
chusetts, a gallant artillery ofiicer of the revolutionary 
army, was made secretary of war, continuing the duties 
he already exercised under the Confederation. Governor 
Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, became attorney-gen- 
eral, and John Jay, of New York, chief justice of the 
Supreme Court. "Integrity, capacity, conspicuous- 
ness " — surely these qualities were illustrated in marked 
degree by that cluster of brilliant statesmen. 
The first tariflf Meanwhile Congress had been busy providing an in- 
come. The two obvious modes were a duty on imports 
and an internal revenue tax. The former was chosen as 
less open to objection, and the first federal tariff" act be- 
came a law by the signature of President Washington on 
the 4th of July, 1789. Its preamble recited its pur- 
poses to be the production of revenue and the protection 
of home industries, and the debates show that the pro- 
tective feature was quite prominent.* Since the war the 
old English restrictions on American manufactures had 
disappeared, and such industries were rising on all sides. 
Free trade was not an eighteenth century idea, and the 
only lesson the colonists had learned from England was 
that the English government had always used all its 
powers for the aid of English commerce. The Ameri- 
cans now proposed to do the same for their own. 
The Tonnage -^ similar policy prevailed in a second revenue meas- 

^'^'' ure, that laying a tonnage duty on ships. This taxed 



* The preamble to the act reads : " liliereas, It is necessary for the support 
of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the 
encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, 
wares, and merchandise imported, . . ." 



The Organization of the Ak-ition. 107 



vessels built and owned in the United States six cents a 
ton, those built but not owned in the United States thirty 
cents, the same for ships of powers having- treaties with 
the United States, and all others fifty cents. 

The debates on these acts were warm, but not acri- xhe president's 
monious. More heat was displayed when the question ^^^^' 
arose at the outset as to the title by which the president 
should be addressed. The Senate wished to call him 
" His Highness, the President of the United States of 
America and Protector of Their Liberties." The House 
insisted on styling him simply "The President of the 
United States," in the words of the constitution, and this 
sensible view prevailed. But there was a great fusilade 
of oratory in both Houses. 

The first session of the First Congress was adjourned ^ , , 

* _ -" September, 

in September, for a recess until the opening of the new 1789- 
year. But before adjourning, the House requested the 
secretary of the treasury to prepare a report on the pub- , 

lie credit. And this important document, the first of report on the 

^ _ public credit. 

Hamilton's remarkable reports, was laid before the House 
of Representatives when Congress reassembled in the 
winter of 1790. 

The public debt incurred by the Revolutionary War schouier, i.,i3o. 
Hamilton divided into three distinct portions. The first 
was that which was owed in Europe, largely to France, 
some to Holland, a little to Spain. This amounted, 
principal and interest, to about $12,000,000. The sec- 
ond comprised all forms of domestic indebtedness, which, 
including interest, came to upwards of $42,000,000. The 
third included the war debts of the several states, and was 
more than $20,000,000. The secretary proposed to fund 
the whole into United States bonds running for a definite J^.^em"'^'"^ 
time and bearing a fixed interest, six per cent being the 
maximum. Then duties on certain specified articles. 




Bronze Statue of Alexander Hamilton, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
By William Ordway Partridge. 



Violent oppo- 



The Organization of the Nation. 109 

with an internal revenue tax, would suffice to meet the 
interest and in the end to pay off the principal. 

There was no difference of opinion as to the necessity 
and duty of paying the foreign debt in full. But there sition. 
unanimity ceased, and the other features of the plan pro- 
voked violent opposition. As to the domestic debt, very 
few of the original creditors held the scrip. It had jDassed 
from hand to hand at increasing rates of discount, until 
the final holders had paid twenty-five, twenty, and even 
fifteen cents on the dollar. To pay these speculators at 
par would yield them an enormous profit. If the debt 
should be scaled down to twenty-five cents on the dollar 
it would save the treasury many millions and still hand- 
somely repay the speculators. Moreover, the states had 
been accustomed to compound with their creditors, and 
it was on that supposition that the certificates had been 
sold at so low a rate. It was now manifestly unjust to 
pay what nobody expected to get. And if anybody had 
a title to full payment it was not the speculators at all, 
but the original creditors, and these had long since sold 
out. 

To these arguments, certainly plausible, the only re- 

1 .1 . •. , 1 r • 1 r 1 • Defense of the 

ply was that it was not good laith lor the nation to plan, 
promise to pay a dollar and in fact to pay less — that it 
did not concern the government how the certificates 
came to pass from the original holders, on what terms 
they had been transferred, or who were the present own- 
ers — and that, aside from the question of right, it would 
in the end be bad policy to repudiate any part of the 
national debt. The credit of the republic would be good 
in the money markets of the world only if it should be 
understood that its financial promises would be kept to 
the letter. 

Congress decided that these considerations were con- 



no The Growth of the Aviericmi Nation. 



Assumption of 
state debts. 



Assumption 
defeated. 



The capital. 



The compro- 
mise. 



Assumption 
carried. 



August 4, 1790. 



elusive, and that national credit was worth the cost. 
Accordingly this part of the funding plan was accepted. 

But the proposed assumption of state debts aroused a 
furious quarrel. No one had thought of this at all. No 
state had asked or expected it. Some states had pro- 
vided for their debts. Others had neglected theirs. To 
pay them all with federal taxes would be to reward sloth 
and bad faith at the expense of thrift and integrity. On 
the other hand, it would cost the country as a whole no 
more, whether the debts were paid by state or nation. 
As the states had under the constitution lost the right of 
levying import or export duties, they could not so con- 
veniently get the taxes as could the United States. And, 
after all, the debts were incurred in the common cause, 
and it did not therefore seem more than just that they 
should be paid from the common purse. But the oppo- 
sition was strong enough finally to defeat assumption in 
the House by the close vote of thirty-one to twenty-nine. 
There for a time the matter rested. 

In the meantime, a new question had caused sharp 
division. A federal capital wholly under the control of 
Congress was evidently necessary for the national dig- 
nity. New York and Philadelphia were aspirants, and 
the southern people wanted it on the Potomac. 

Hamilton now proposed to Jefferson a plan for settling 
both questions. The latter was to induce Virginia op- 
ponents of assumption to yield, and Hamilton was to 
secure northern votes for a capital in the South. This 
was done. The federal capital was to be fixed on the 
Potomac, Philadelphia being the seat of government 
until 1800. And the funding bill as it came down from 
the Senate, with an amendment to assume state debts to 
the amount of $21,500,000, was accepted by the House. 

Hamilton doubtless had ulterior political purposes 



The Organization of the Nation. 1 1 1 

which he did not reveal to Congress. Funding and as- Hamilton's 
sumption, entirely aside from their financial bearing, he """ '^^^' 
thought would be powerful means of welding the nation 
together and especially of consolidating the moneyed 
interests in favor of the federal government. And in 
this he was certainly successful. 

But the dissensions which these financial schemes of The beginnings 
the brilliant secretary aroused in Congress were reflected parties.'*^^ 
in the country at large, and later in the cabinet of Presi- 
dent Washington, and were the beginning of that di- 
vergence of political views which led shortly after to the 
formation of distinct national political parties. Hence 
the history of our national politics may be said properly 
to have had its beginning in this second session of the 
First Congress, in 1790. 

The Tariff Act of 1789 had been adopted without any 
definite idea of the amount of revenue which the new 
government would need. The adoption of Hamilton's 
schemes for funding, including the assumption of the 
state debts, made necessary an expenditure much 
greater than the income from customs, and therefore a 
new tax was imperative. When Congress reassembled 
in December, 1790, the secretary of the treasury recom- The excise, 
mended an excise on whisky, as being calculated to yield 
the needed revenue, and at the same time as a tax on a 
luxury. This measure was adopted, although it excited 
much greater opposition than had the tariff bill. And 
it may be added that the hostility among the people was 
very bitter. In western Pennsylvania distilled spirits 
were a principal product, and in the scarcity of a good 
circulating medium whisky even served as money. 
Among the mountaineers of that rugged country the 
collection of the tax was resisted by violence. And so 
far did this go that in 1794 Washington was obliged to 



112 The Growth of the Amcricaji Nation. 



i^>sur^ctfo.r ^''^'^ ^" ^^''^y ^^^°^^ ^^^^ mountains to brin^ the frontier 
farmers to their dut>'. This coUision had further sig- 
nificance as the first test of the new central government 



Insurrection 

1794- 



Hamilton's 
third report. 




against local insurrection. And the constitution proved 
adeauate to the empro-pnrv 



adequate to the emergency. 

A third report by Hamilton at the winter session of 
1790-91 recommended a bank of the United States, with 



The Organization of the A^ation. 113 

branches in the principal cities. The federal government 

was to own a filth of the stock, to have a fifth of the di- The Bank of 

the I lilted 

rectors, and to ha\'e some ad\antages besides. The states. 
bank was to make government exchanges, keep 
treasury balances, and on occasion to make ad\-ances to 
supply temporary public needs. It was to carry on a 
general banking business, and to issue paper currency, 
payable in gold or silver, and receivable for all dues to 
the United States. This proposition not only aroused 
alarm among those who feared the association of gov- 
ernment with banking, but was attacked on the ground 
that the constitution gave Congress no specific authority 
to charter such an institution. This argument Hamilton 
answered by the theory of implied powers — that Con- 
gress had the power to do anything "necessary and 
proper" to carry into effect the other powers, and that 
a bank was such an agency lor carrying on the fiscal 
operations of the go\-ernment. Here Madison and Jef- 
ferson took issue with Hamilton, and from this time the 
"loose construction" theory of Hamilton and the Thecoustruc- 

, ., tinn of the coi. 

"strict construction theory ol Jetterson began to be stituti 
the cardinal principles of the two national parties which 
were now rapidly forming. The bank bill was passed 
and became a law. President Washington yielding to the 
views of the secretary of the treasury. The charter was 
for twenty years (1791-1S11). 

Another important measure of the indelatigable sec- 
retary was a national mint. The coins in common use 
were a frightful mixture of those of various countries — 
English, French, Spanish, Mexican, of many denomina- 
tions, of all sorts of values — shillings, crowns, dollars, 
moidores, joes, half joes. Hamilton proposed a uniform 
decimal scale, with the dollar as the unit, and the double 
standard. The former was a verv novel relorm, the 



tion. 



The mint. 



1 1 4 The Growth of the American Natioti. 



The double 
standard. 



Odd debate : 
to coins. 



Economic 
effects of the 
new govern- 
ment. 



latter was in deference to the common practice in 
Europe. But the ratio between gold and silver in this 
first federal law on the subject was fixed at one to fifteen, 
and thereby at once illustrated the difficulty of fixing a 
price by statute; While it is true that in 1792, when 
the act was passed, fifteen silver dollars were about the 
price of one gold dollar, it is also true that that price 
was rising, and continued to rise for many years. The 
result was that, as is always the case under free condi- 
tions, the cheaper metal drove the dearer out of circu- 
lation. Gold disappeared, and in place of a double 
standard we had practically under the law of 1792 a 
single silver standard. 

The mint bill was passed with little political heat. The 
only serious discussion related to Hamilton's proposal to 
put the head of the president on the coin. This was 
rejected, as savoring too much of monarchy. Various 
suggestions followed. The eagle was denounced as a 
rapacious bird, the emblem of war. Another member 
then gravely suggested the goose, as a bird symbolizing 
peace and decorum. The matter was compromised by 
selecting the lady who passes as the goddess of liberty 
for the obverse, with various devices, an eagle being the 
favorite, for the reverse. 

The organization of a stable government was imme- 
diately followed by a revival of prosperity. Business 
began to expand as soon as men could begin to depend 
on the future. Uncertainty, apprehension, distrust, 
were replaced by confidence in the stability of social 
conditions. Trade among the states was no longer ham- 
pered by vexatious tariffs. The holders of questionable 
continental scrip suddenly found that they owned sub- 
stantial wealth. The federal taxes flowed in with regu- 
lar abundance, and the interest on the national debt was 



The Organization of the Nation. 



115 



paid with punctuality. The federal bank provided a con- 
venient channel for interstate exchanges and set in motion 
capital which it gathered in masses. The great wants of 
the country had been, first of all, assured order, and 
then adequate capital for the development of its vast 
material resources. The federal government secured 
the first, and Hamilton's great financial system made 
sure of the second. Manufactures began to expand, 
and commerce redoubled its activity. 

Hamilton had done more than any other one man to 
create the national credit and so to awaken orderly 
national enterprise. In his fourth great report, that on 
manufactures, in 1791, he set out an elaborate scheme 
for governmental protection and encouragement to in- 
dustry. Little was done to carry out these ideas, al- 
though the existing tariff was mildly protective. The 
principles of Hamilton were not attempted to be fully 
put into effect until after the second war with England, 
when Henry Clay's "American system" became a car- 
dinal doctrine of a new political party. 

But meanwhile it became evident that the constitution 
meant social order, that social order opened the way for 
profitable industry, and that the development of every 
form of national power was possible as soon as men 
could hope for assured returns from their toil. 

In other words, the progress of civilization is impos- 
sible without the state. And the state is human society 
in organic form. Under the Confederation the Ameri- 
can state was virtually unorganized. The constitution 
provided the organization of the American nation. 



Hamilton's 
report on 
manufactures. 



Results of the 
constitution. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



COMMERCE AND NEUTRALITY. 



References. — Schouler, Vol. I. ; McMaster, 
Shaler : The United States of America, Vol. I. 



Vol. II. 



Admission of 
new states. 



Foreign com- 
merce. 



Shaler, I., 518. 



The new federal government, as has been shown, 
worked so smoothly and efficiently from the first as to 
inspire immediate confidence in the stability of social or- 
der, and confidence at once opened the way to activity in 
all lines of business. Manufactures rapidly expanded. 
A tide of immigration set in toward the unsettled lands of 
the West, and the forests beyond the Alleghenies began 
to yield to the axe of the settler. The quarrel between 
New York and New Hampshire for the Green Mountain 
region was ended by the admission of Vermont to the 
Union as a fourteenth state, in 1791. In 1792 the west- 
ern district of North Carolina was admitted as the state 
of Tennessee, and in 1796, in like manner, the western 
district of Virginia became the state of Kentucky. Thus 
the eleven states which formed the republic when Wash- 
ington was inaugurated in 1789 had become sixteen when 
he retired from the presidency in 1797. 

Shipbuilding, the fisheries, and ocean commerce had 
long afforded employment to the people of the New Eng- 
land coast. These industries picked up slowly in the 
few years after the Revolutionary War, but with 1789 
they began to expand with great rapidity. The Tariff and 
Tonnage Acts of that year levied lower duties on goods 
imported in American vessels, laid a lower tonnage tax 

116 



Covivierce and Akidrality. 117 

on American than on foreign vessels, and made a further 
discrimination in favor of East Indian goods imported di- 
rectly from the country in which they were produced, as 
against the same goods imported from Europe. Stimu- 
lated by these provisions of the law, by the assurance of 
settled social conditions, and by confidence that the gen- Great expansion 

'^'^ of trade. 

eral government would now afford adequate protection 
against piracy and foreign injustice, foreign commerce be- 
came a favorite outlet for capital and industry. Exports 
and imports increased steadily, and soon the American 
flag was found in all parts of the world. In 1789 less 
than a fourth of our ocean traffic was in American vessels, 
while in 1793 less than a fourth was in \'essels not Ameri- 
can. The East India A'oyage especially became popular The East India 

: ^ . . voyage. 

with our merchants. English law at this time debarred 
from that trade any English vessels except those of the 
East India Company, while, as has just been shown, the 
American law offered inducements to all our merchants. 
"The result was that Massachusetts merchants, who 
already had some forty vessels employed in the trade, J.R. Soieyin 

. . , , . Slialer, I.,525. 

rapidly enlarged their ventures, and laid the foundation 
of those great fortunes which constitute the origin of the 
wealth of so many of the older New England families. 
These merchants shipped cargoes sometimes directly to 
the East, sometimes to intermediate ports, to be replaced 
by other cargoes of suitable character, and brought back 
for the use of their countrymen immense quantities of 
tea, spices, sugar, coffee, silks, nankeen, and other 
cloths — all of them articles of great value in proportion to 
their bulk, and therefore yielding heavy profits in the 
carrying trade ; and whatever did not find a market at 
home was reshipped from New England ports and sold 
at Hamburg or other commercial centers of Northern 
Europe. It may be said that the marked commercial 



1 1 8 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The wars of 
the French 
Revolution. 



America con- 
cerned. 



feature of the period was the development of this trade. 
It was the era of which Hawthorne speaks in his famous 
description of the custom-house, in the introduction to 
' The Scarlet Letter, ' where he calls up ' the image of the 
old town's brighter aspect, when India was a new re- 
gion, and only Salem knew the way thither. ' ' ' 

The development of this feature of our national life, as 
well as the course of our political history, was powerfully 
affected by the outbreak of the French revolutionary 
wars in 1792. 

When the States-General met at Versailles the week 
after Washington was inaugurated, in 1789, all America 
looked on with interest. When the States-General be- 
came the National Assembly, and France seemed on the 
way to peaceful reform of her despotic and feudal insti- 
tutions, American interest became warm sympathy. But 
the Revolution moved on beyond control. Thrones 
were in danger. France was attacked by Germany in 
the interest of the divine right of kings. And in 1793 
France and England were again at war. This proved to 
be a war of giants. In the end all Europe was involved, 
and the struggle raged for nearly twenty-five years, with 
only the brief interval of a single year after the peace of 
Amiens in 1802. 

In this turmoil of passions the United States could not 
help being involved. The principles at issue were not 
national but social, and so enlisted the hottest ardor of 
America, as well as Europe, in opposing factions. Our 
growing ocean commerce was with the various belliger- 
ents, and so inevitably led to many entanglements, 
especially with France and England. And through 
these entanglements we were with the greatest difficulty 
kept for many years from being dragged into actual war 
on one side or the other. We did come to blows with 



Commerce 



Cojnmerce and Neutrality. 1 1 9 

France in the last years of the century, although the 
matter was patched up. And at last, goaded beyond 
further endurance by the insults and wrongs of England, 
we yielded to the maelstrom in 181 2 and did what for 
a generation the whole world had been doing — we went 
to war. 

One of the first effects of the war between France and 
England was still further to stimulate American com- stimulated. 
merce. The British navy swept French traders from the 
seas, and French privateers made ocean voyages danger- 
ous for British merchantmen. But each nation wanted 
the provisions and stores which could only come from 
over the seas, and so the American neutral flag acquired 
almost a monopoly of the carrying trade. Under the 
old colonial system the French had confined commerce 
with their colonies to French ships. But when French 
ships could no longer sail in safety, the French govern- 
ment threw open its ports to American shipping, and 
the sugar of San Domingo, the coffee and hides of South 
America, were thus carried securely to France. And of 
course American provisions and marine stores met a 
ready and growing market in European ports. 

But the turmoil in Europe led to a great emigration, immigration 
French refugees from San Domingo, and from the Old 
World, Irish and Scotch and English and Germans, 
eagerly took refuge in a land which seemed dedicated to 
liberty and in which it seemed possible for every one to 
prosper. There were no kings, no privileged nobles, no 
entailed estates. Land could be had in fee simple, there 
was room for all, and the liberal naturalization laws of 
the First Congress made it possible for the immigrant 
soon to be a citizen. 

News of war between France and England reached 
America soon after WashinQ:ton's second inaus^uration, 



I20 The Growth of the American Natio7i. 

Franceand i^ the Spring of 1 793- With the previous phases of the 
England at war, ^^^^^ j^^ which Germans were the enemies of France, the 
United States had no immediate concern. But a col- 
Hsion between France and England meant war on the 
seas and in the colonies, and between nations with which 
Americans were closely involved in commerce. More- 
over, the treaty with France made in 1778 was still 
in force, and gave that nation some special privileges. 
The course to be taken by the federal government there- 
fore became matter of grave concern. Washington was 
at Mount Vernon. Hastening at once to Philadelphia, 
he called a conference of the heads of departments (the 
first cabinet meeting) and sought their advice. It was 
agreed to issue a proclamation taking the ground of 
complete neutrality, and forbidding American citizens to 
give aid to either party. 

This was beyond doubt the only wise policy for the 

American -' j i j 

neutrality. American Republic. But it was very distasteful to 

many of the people, who remembered with gratitude the 
aid given by France during the Revolutionary War, who 
sympathized warmly with the French republican cause, 
and who were by no means yet attached to England. 
This dissatisfaction was fanned into a flame by the new 
French minister, Genet, who landed at Charleston with 
his pocket full of blank letters of marque and commis- 
sions in the French service. These he used generously, 

Qgjjgj and soon had a number of privateers fitted out in Ameri- 

can ports and capturing British merchant ships along the 
American coast. Such an audacious violation of the 
sovereignty of the United States and of the respect due 
to a nation with which we were at peace of course could 
not be allowed, and so the administration called Genet 
sharply to account, and compelled a restitution of the 
illegal prizes. The choleric Frenchman took this in high 



Co7iimerce afid Akutrality. I2i 

dudgeon. And at first he was encouraged by public 

sentiment. There was a deal of fi'othy enthusiasm for 1^^ democratic 

-' ferment tn 

French republican ideas. ' ' The rights of man ' ' were America. 
the theme of fervid oratory. Democratic clubs, in imita- 
tion of the Jacobin Club of Paris, sprang up like mush- 
rooms, and at their banquets the strains of "^a ira" 
and ' ' Yankee Doodle ' ' alternated, while the stars and 
stripes were intertwined with the tricolor. These fer- 
vent Democrats, as they began to call themselves in '93, 
at first felt aggrieved that Washington had not received 
Genet with open arms, and that the American Republic 
had not joined the French Republic in a crusade against 
the world. But when Genet insulted the administration 
the popular fervor cooled. And when the Frenchman, 
deluded with the idea that the people were with him, 
threatened to appeal from the American president to the 
American nation, the tide of feeling turned quite against 
him, and there was general approval of the president's 
demand on the French government to recall its impu- 
dent envoy. The demand was heeded. But Genet 
fully understood the fate of a disgraced servant of the 
French Republic, and was aware that in Paris his head 
would be in danger. As, on the whole, he preferred to 
retain his head, but had no such exclusive policy as to 
the disposal of his heart, he settled the matter by re- 
maining in this country and marrying the daughter of 
Governor George Clinton, of New York. 

Thus for the present Washington's firm policy kept 
the nation from being dragged into war with England. England. 
But there were many vexatious matters affecting our rela- 
tions with that country. As the American agreements 
under the treaty of 1783 had not all been fulfilled, the 
British yet retained certain forts in the western part of 
the United States. There was as yet no commercial 



The reaction. 



Trouble with 



122 The Growth of the American Nation. 

treaty. And, above all, the British claim of belligerent 
rights in the war with France was a serious annoyance to 
our growing commerce. 
^^ , As has been said, when hostilities broke out France 

The neutral ' 

flag- opened all her ports to commerce, and the carrying trade 

between French colonies and French seaports soofi was 
transferred almost wholly to American shipping. But 
England insisted on the right to capture French property 
on the high seas wherever found, and so took it from 
American ships. Further, England declared food to be 
contraband of war. • The exports from the United States 
consisted largely in provisions. While England did not 
make prize of ships bound for France with such cargoes, 
she insisted that they should be unloaded in British ports, 
where the cargo was duly paid for. Then the governors 
of petty West India islands were made admiralty judges. 
They were ignorant men, and were paid for judicial work 
by fees from condemned ships. And presently it ap- 
peared that almost every American ship charged with ex- 
ceeding the rights of neutrals was quite sure to be con- 
demned. Another grievance was the English practice of 
stopping American merchantmen and taking from their 
crew any British subjects who might be found, for service 
in the royal navy. And it was not always easy to tell 
an Englishman from an American, so after a while it 
came to be the practice of British naval officers to claim 
any likely sailor as an Englishman. 

These accumulated outrages reawakened the revolu- 
tionary animosity against Great Britain. In the spring 

Embargo. of 1 794 Cougress laid an embargo on shipping for sixty 

days. Non-intercourse with England was proposed, and 
for a time war seemed inevitable. 

It was Washington's anxious desire to maintain peace, 
and he determined to send to England a special envoy 



Impressment of 
seamen. 



Commerce and Neutrality. 123 

to negotiate a treaty. For this important mission the 
chief justice, John Jay, was selected. The treaty which The Jay treaty. 
he brought back from o\'er the water was perhaps the 
best that could be obtained. It certainly was giving sub- 
stantial commercial privileges for very shadowy English 
concessions. Washington was dissatisfied. Hamilton 
called it "an old woman's treaty." But both felt that it 
was better than war, and urged the Senate to ratify. 
When the treaty was made public, however, there was 
an outburst of popular wrath. In public meetings, in 
the press, and in Congress, the opposition was bitter and 
determined. But the president's wise judgment pre- 
vailed, and the treaty was duly ratified and signed. 

Thus for the second time the wisdom of Washington 
prevented a war with England. And any war would 
have been eminently dangerous to the imperfectly 
welded republic. 

But the angry disputes over Jay's treaty tended still part^dissen- 
further to widen a cleavage of the people into national 5'°"^- 
political parties, which had begun to appear in the First 
Congress. After the Revolutionary War there had been 
no burning question common to all the states until the 
draft of the federal constitution was made public in 1787. 
At that time there ensued a bitter contest at the polls 
and in the several conventions, and the division into 
Federalists and Anti-Federalists was sharply defined, .j-j^^ ^^jj_ 
Of course, with the adoption of the constitution the Federalists, 
Anti- Federalists had no reason for further organized 
action, and quite naturally the new congressmen and 
senators were generally Federalists. 

But the fundina: schemes of Hamilton, and especially ,, 

^ ' r- y Hamilton s 

the assumption of state debts, developed a warm antag- financial plans. 
onism, which was made stronger by the excise and the 
bank. The centralizing tendency of these measures 



124 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Loose construc- 
tion and strict 
construction. 



Jefferson 
dreads a 
monarchy. 



He organizes 
an opposition. 



was clearly seen, and those who had dreaded the con- 
stitution as an abandonment of state rights, together 
with those who had accepted the plan of government 
without desiring to weaken the states, united in 
opposition. 

When Washington was in doubt as to the constitution- 
ality of the bank bill, he sought advice both from Ham- 
ilton and from Jefferson. The former in his written an- 
swer developed the doctrine of implied powers, which of 
course was calculated to extend enormously the scope of 
the central government. Jefferson, having consulted 
with Madison, insisted on the doctrine of strict con- 
struction, and held that the power to charter a bank 
was nowhere given in the constitution. These papers 
formulated a theory of government for the parties which 
were now fast taking shape. 

Jefferson came back from France in 1789 filled with 
the ultra-democratic ideas of the Jacobin Clubs, and on 
assuming charge of the department of state found him- 
self surrounded by stanch Federalists who had no sym- 
pathy with democracy. The secretary was suspicious 
by nature, and he soon became convinced that the dom- 
inant politicians were aiming to convert the republic 
into a monarchy. Being himself an astute and am- 
bitious politician, as well as a fiery Democrat, he set out 
to organize a following out of the promising elements at 
hand. In doing this he was not oversensitive to consid- 
erations of delicacy. Hamilton soon found that his pol- 
icy for his own department was steadily opposed by his 
colleague in the department of state. And not content 
with introducing faction in the cabinet, Jefferson aided 
in the establishment of a newspaper in the interest of his 
faction by appointing the editor, Freneau, to a clerkship 
in the state department. The columns of Freneau' s 



Comuuric and Neutrality. 



125 



A French party 
and an English 
party. 



paper soon were filled with attacks on the policy of the Preneau's 
administration, and with venomous personalities aimed at 
Hamilton and in the end even at Washington himself. 

The beginning of the French revolutionary wars added 
new fuel to the kindling flame of faction. The party of 
Jefferson was enthusiastically French — lauded the Jaco- 
bins to the skies, went wild over the "rights of man," 
and hated England as the sworn enemy of liberty. On 
the other hand, the Federalists looked on the upheaval 
in France as little better than an outbreak of anarchy. 
They felt that after all England was fighting for social or- 
der. And they saw that American commercial interests 
were closely interwoven with those of England. Many 
of the more fiery Democrats would have welcomed a 
hearty alliance with France in her republican wars, but the 
administration and the cooler heads in all the states held 
firmly to neutrality as the only safe policy. But this in- 
trusion of foreign politics into our domestic dissensions 
was most pernicious and far reaching. To our shame be 
it said that there were a ' ' French party ' ' and an ' ' Eng- 
lish party ' ' in the United States until the mortal struggle 
between those nations ended on the field of Waterloo. 

Washington had consented reluctantly in 1792 to a 
reelection. His second term was stormy and difficult. 
The European war, the treaty with England, the rapid 
development of the opposition party, and the scurrilous 
abuse to which the administration was subjected, com- 
bined to render the president's position far from an easy 
one. Jefferson retired from the cabinet at the end of 
1793, and Hamilton about a year later. The abuse of the 
small politicians was not a reflection of the public mind, 
and Washington might easily have been chosen for a 
third term, but he had finally decided to retire to his 
longed-for repose at Mount Vernon, and so declined 



Washington 
retires. 



126 The Groivth of the American Nation. 



The farewell 
address. 



Election of 
Adams and 
Jefferson. 



The nation 
organized. 



another election. His farewell address to the American 
people was an earnest warning against the evils and 
dangers which seemed to be rising aronnd the republic. 

The Federalists selected the vice-president, John 
Adams, as their candidate for president, and Thomas 
Pinckney, of Maryland, for the second place, while the 
opposition bent all their efforts to the election of Jeffer- 
son to the presidency. By the constitution, as it then 
stood, the electors voted for two candidates without 
designating the office. The one who had a majority 
of the votes was to be president, and the next on the 
list was to be vice-president. In this clumsy way it 
turned out that Adams was elected president and Jeffer- 
son vice-president. And in each branch of Congress 
there was a majority favorable to the Federalist president. 

The two administrations of George Washington had 
sufficed to organize the federal government on a firm 
basis. The public debt had been funded in such way as 
to secure the prompt payment of interest and the ulti- 
mate extinction of the principal. The federal revenue 
was ample, and the national credit, under the Confedera- 
tion utterly worthless, was now raised to universal re- 
spect. The policy of neutrality had sufficed to keep 
America from entanglement with the great European 
war, while at the same time it contained the essential 
principles which have since come to be known as the 
' ' Monroe Doctrine. ' ' The operation of the govern- 
ment had from the first been so orderly and successful 
as to give universal confidence to mercantile undertak- 
ings. Manufactures and commerce were expanding on 
all sides. Population was steadily increasing. The na- 
tion had begun its growth. To Washington the presi- 
dent we owe even more than to Washington the revo- 
lutionary general. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FEDERALIST IDEAS. 

References. — Schouler, Vol. I. ; McMaster, Vol. II. ; 
Weeden : Economic and Social History of New England ; 
Dorchester : Christianity in the United States. 

Washington, in his farewell address, warned the 
people in the most solemn manner ' ' to beware of the Pany govern- 
baneful effect of party spirit. " Himself inspired by the 
most profound regard for the whole republic, he felt 
acutely the dissensions which had embittered his official 
life as president, and foreboded grave evils from their 
continuance. He did not realize that party government 
was inevitable in a republic. And the administration of 
Adams was only avowedly what his predecessor's had 
been in fact — an administration by the Federalist party. 

To comprehend the Federalist way of thinking, it is 
necessary to remember that society at the end of the society 
eighteenth century was passing through a transforma- 
tion which it was not easy to understand at the time. 
Democracy, in the modern sense, had not been a colonial 
idea. Both socially and politically there was a real aris- 
tocracy. In New England there were not wide diver- 
gences in wealth, for there were none very rich and i^w 
very poor. Yet distinctions of birth, of official position, 
and of property were sharply maintained. From an early 
period many of the churches assigned pews according to 
a carefully graded social rank. It was not until 1768 that 
Yale College ceased to arrange students in its annual cat- 

. . Weeden, I., 

alogue in the order of the social standing of the parents, 278-280. 

127 



See p. 64. 



1 28 The Growth of the American Nation. 



See p. 64. 

Weed en, I. 

739- 



Washington's 
" republican 
court." 



and Harvard followed the same custom, as has been seen, 
until 1773. The tide was moving toward democracy, and 
after the Revolution many aristocratic customs had dis- 
appeared. But there remained a powerful class which 
was keenly conscious of its own superiority. In New 
York there was a landed baronage which held a feudal 
position. And in the South the gentry lived on their 
wide plantations in the manner and imbued with the no- 
tions of the English country gentleman. Equality of po- 
litical rights was no more the rule than was equality of 
social rank. Suffrage and eligibility to office in many of 
the states were limited to property owners, or to certain 
denominations of Christians. Negro slaves were held in 
nearly all the states, and even in New England the 
churches provided separate pews for the blacks. There 
were many people who disliked slavery, but in the ex- 
treme South it was held to be necessary, and after Eli 
Whitney invented the cotton-gin, in 1793, the demand for 
negro labor in the cotton fields was so greatly increased 
that all the Southern States found slavery profitable. 
And slave communities tend to perpetuate ideas of caste. 
The drift of the Revolution was to unsettle class dis- 
tinctions, especially as the Tories were more numerous 
among the " upper ten." But, on the other hand, many 
of the revolutionary leaders were far from being demo- 
crats. Washington was a thorough aristocrat. He in- 
sisted that his officers should be gentlemen, and his de- 
meanor was always reserved and stately. When he be- 
came president he had a high idea of the dignity of his 
office, and supported it with somewhat elaborate cere- 
mony. He appeared in the streets of New York on im- 
portant occasions in a hemispherical, canary-colored 
coach, drawn by four or six horses. His receptions were 
very formal, and, notwithstanding that no titles of nobil- 



Federalist Ideas. 



129 



A democratic 
republic a new 
thing. 



ity existed, the president's wife was quite commonly 
called " Lady Washington." The confusion of the Con- 
federation convinced many people that more of form 
and order was sadly needed in society as well as in poli- 
tics. The leading Federalists believed that public affairs 
should be in the hands of the educated and wealthy few. 
They distrusted the masses. Hamilton did not conceal 
his scorn for democracy, and Adams's phrase, "the 
well born," in one of his books, became a by-word. 

It ought not to be forgotten that a republic on any- 
thing like a democratic basis was a novel thing. The 
examples of antiquity were remote. But it was not for- 
gotten that the Greek and Roman Republics had fallen. 
The Dutch Republic was very aristocratic, and its stadt- 
holder was really a king. The Swiss Confederation could 
hardly be a pattern for America. It was not easy for 
men to believe that any government other than mon- 
archical was likely to be permanent. And the Federalists 
were of the opinion that the freest and best form of gov- 
ernment in the world was that of Great Britain, and this 
they were inclined to copy, as far as circumstances would 
allow. It is not at all probable that there was ever 
among the Federalists a plan to create a monarchy. 
Jefferson was sure that such a conspiracy was brewing, 
and every chance word dropped at the table or in private 
conversation was to him added confirmation. But while 
in this his imaginative and suspicious temperament un- 
doubtedly led him into error, there is no doubt that the 
Federalists did want a strong and dignified government. 
Those who had been in the Federal Convention of 1787 
remembered that Hamilton there suggested a plan which 
embraced such features as life tenure for the president ernment, 1787 
and Senate, the appointment of state governors by the 
central government, and a federal veto on all state legis- 



Hamilton's 
plan for gov- 



130 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Federalist 
doctrines. 

See p. 106. 



The New Eng- 
land clergy. 



Religious and 
moral ferment. 



lation. The tendency of the financial measures adopted 
by the First Congress was undoubtedly to enhance the 
power of the federal government very greatly. The 
Federalists adopted Hamilton's view of the constitution 
as being a document which should be construed loosely 
and in such sense as to give the central government 
virtually all powers not explicitly forbidden it. It was 
also a Federalist theory of political science that it was a 
function of government to aid and encourage the in- 
dustry of the people. It was to this end that the pro- 
tective features were embodied in the tariff of 1789, and 
this was a prominent purpose in the formation of the 
United States Bank. The Federalists, too, believed in 
a strong army and navy, and would have the United 
States felt in international affairs. The policy later called 
the "Monroe Doctrine," as has been shown, was really 
initiated by the Federalist administrations. 

A powerful element of Federalism was the New Eng- 
land clergy. It will be remembered that until the nine- 
teenth century was well on its way the Congregational 
Church was established by law in Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. The clergy had from the first been leaders and 
almost autocrats in New England society. They now 
saw dangerous ideas and practices rife. That intellectual 
unrest was already evident which a few years later was 
to result in the great upheaval in Puritan Congregation- 
alism, which made Unitarian institutions of the church 
of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and of Harvard College at 
Cambridge. The wars and the French alliance had 
brought in a flood of infidelity and atheism. Morals 
were at a low ebb. Indeed, no period in our history 
shows more utter social demoralization than the last dec- 
ade of the eighteenth century. And the clergy instinct- 
ively turned to the Federalist party, the party of strong 



Federalist Ideas. 131 



government, for that tonic which seemed to be needed 
ahke for lax morals and for lax theology. 

But French enmity to religion was if anything less p^g^^j ^^ 
dreadful to sober minds than were the political ideas of Frepc'i po''ti- 

i cal ideas. 

French Jacobinism. The " rights of man " were prated 
as glibly in the democratic clubs of New York and Phila- 
delphia as in the streets of Paris. And the Federalists 
were satisfied that an American reign of terror was im- 
pending — that property, the family, morals, were in 
serious danger. In short, there was the same dread of 
the new ideas of democracy which we are apt to feel to- 
day of the anarchists. 

Macaulay points out that the bulk of a nation is often -p,^g Federalists 
relatively indifferent as between two eager factions, and Ufajorky. 
hence that a positive minority may often triumph by 
sheer audacity. The masses follow success. It seems 
quite probable that this was the case in the early part of 
the Revolutionary War. Separatists in 1775 were as 
decided a minority as were thick-and-thin loyalists. And 
it is not likely that out-and-out Federalists were ever 
a real majority of our people. So long as their admin- 
istration of affairs was brilliantly successful, and so long 
as they avoided alarming the really democratic ideas of 
the masses, the Federalists kept their hold on political 
power. 

John Adams was an able and scrupulously honorable ^^^^ Adams 
man, with high ideas of national dignity. He was ex- 
ceedingly vain, inordinately fussy, and irascible to a de- 
gree. With this mixture of strong and weak qualities 
he was admirably qualified to administer the government 
with vigor and to throw political parties into a turmoil. 
The real leader of the Federalists was Hamilton. And 
with Hamilton the new president already had a thriving 
quarrel. It was owing to the machinations of the former 



132 The Grozt'th of the Americayi Nation. 



Trouble with 
France. 



Dissatisfaction 
at American 
ingratitude. 



Hostile 
measures. 



that Adams had so small a vote in the electoral colleges 
of 1789 — a fact which he bitterly resented. And the 
same influence disturbed the election of 1797. 

The new administration was confronted at once with a 
grave difficulty in foreign affairs. France had felt pro- 
foundly dissatis- 
fied that the 
United States 
had shown such 
ingratitude for 
French aid in the 
Revolutionary 
War and such 
disregard for the 
treaty of alliance 
made in 1778 as 
not to join frankly 
in the war against 
England, But 
this dissatisfac- 
tion was fanned 
into rage when 
the Jay treaty be- 

JoHN Adams. came IcUOWU. 

Born, 1735; died, 1826. Graduated at Harvard, 1755; 
lawyer ; member of Contitiental Congress; signer of This, the DirCC- 
Declaration of Independence; commissioner to 

France; with Franklin and Jay negotiated treaty of tOry held, made 
peace in 1783; minister to England, 17S5-8 ; vice- 
president, 1789-97; president of the United States, the Americans 
1 797-1801. 

virtually allies of 
England. Accordingly the French government refused 
to receive the new minister, C. C. Pinckney, who had 
been sent to Paris to succeed Monroe. And French 
cruisers began to seize American merchant ships on all 
manner of pretexts. 

The administration desired an amicable settlement, 




Federalist Ideas. 



and sent a special mission to Paris for that purpose, ^*|;ci"f n^issfon 
Gerry and Marshall being joined with Pinckney. But 
in lieu of an honorable reception the Americans were 
kept waiting on one pretext and another, and presently 
were notified in a roundabout way that if America de- 
sired a treaty with France an indispensable preliminary The Directory 
would be a loan for the republic and a private bribe of bribe, 
nearly a quarter of a million dollars for the members of 
the Directory. This precious communication came 
from Talleyrand. Its terms were abruptly rejected, and 
notification was immediately made to President Adams. 

When the president laid the dispatches before Con- The x v z 

, . . .^ • 1- • -IT- dispatches. 

gress, m the spnng of 1798, mdignation with 1^ ranee 
was hot.* The vigorous measures recommended by the 
administration were promptly voted. Public feeling, too, 
ran high. "Millions for defense, not one cent for 
tribute," was the cry. The Federalist black cockade 
appeared everywhere, and the French party seemed 
thoroughly discredited. Provision was made for an 
army, and Washington was called from his retirement to 
assume its command. The navy department was organ- „ 

■' ^ . *^ I he tiavy de- 

ized. In 1794, when trouble with the Barbary pirates partment, 1798. 
seemed at hand. Congress had authorized the building 
of six frigates. Three of these, the Constitution, Con- 
stellaiion, and United States, were now ready, and the 
president was authorized to add a number of small ves- 
sels. This little squadron was sent to the West Indies 
with instructions to protect American commerce. It 
was done most efficiently, and in several gallant actions 
the new navy began to win that renown which the war 
with Tripoli and the second war with England were 
afterwards to make imperishable. 

* President Adams did not give the names ol Talleyrand's go-betweens, but 
indicated them bv the letters X Y Z. 



134 T^^^ Grozi'th of the American N'ation. 



Hamilton's 
plans for the 
war. 



Talleyrand is 
alarmed and 
yields. 



The new 
mission, 1799. 

Convention of 
1800 settles the 
trouble with 
France. 



Hamilton had been made second in command of the 
army, and his mihtary plans were far reaching. He 
proposed to attack Spain, the ally of France, and to 
take from her Florida and Louisiana ; then to make con- 
quests from the Spanish provinces in Mexico, and, as 
Hamilton wrote, to ' ' squint toward South America. " ' 
Had formal war resulted and these plans been carried 
out, history would have been anticipated in a very curious 
way. We have, in fact, acquired Florida, Louisiana, 
and a large portion of Mexico. But the last annexation 
in the South was made when Hamilton had been in his 
grave for fifty years. 

The publication of the X Y Z dispatches in America 
of course made it necessary that their contents should be 
known in Europe. Talleyrand was disconcerted, but 
with his usual brazen assurance he disavowed the acts of 
his agents. The unexpected spirit shown by the Ameri- 
cans made him uneasy, too, and he let it be known that 
he would give an honorable reception to a new embassy. 
Adams's cabinet, together with Hamilton, whom they 
were more apt to consult than the president, were strongly 
opposed to making any more advances. But Adams 
concluded that he was the president and abruptly de- 
cided that he would send envoys without regard to the 
views of the cabinet. Accordingly three commissiohers 
were sent, in 1799. And in the following year they suc- 
ceeded in making a convention with France v;hich set- 
tled all the matters in dispute. The old treaty of 1778, 
with all its inconvenient clauses, was abrogated. 

Both Washington and Adams did very unpopular 
things in making the treaties with England and France. 
But undoubtedly both were right. War would have 
been a serious disaster for the young republic. The Jay 
treaty of 1795 was not a good bargain. But it kept us 



Federalist Ideas. 135 



at peace with Great Britain. And the resolute man- 
hness of John Adams in 1799 kept us from war with 
France. 

At the same time the course of the president dis- fp' P^rtv 

*^ dissensions 

rupted the Federahst party. The war feeUng- in 1798 result. 
had given the FederaHsts the enthusiastic support of the 
g-reat body of the nation. If the leaders had been able 
to agree with one another, and had followed a prudent 
policy, there seems to be no reason to suppose that there 
would not have been a long series of Federalist adminis- 
trations. 

But the dominant party was made dizzy with success, 
and proceeded in 1798 to enact some extreme and quite 
needless measures. The Naturalization Act required a TheNaturaii- 

' . zation Act. 

residence of fourteen years, and in other ways made it 
far less easy for a foreigner to become a citizen. The 
Alien Act empowered the president to send out of the ,,. , 

^ '■\ _ Alien and 

country by arbitrary executive process any alien whom Sedition Laws. 
he might judge to be in any way dangerous. Thus in 
their cases trial by jury was abrogated. The Sedition 
Act prescribed line and imprisonment for ' ' false, scan- 
dalous, and malicious writings ' ' against the national 
government, and for kindred offenses. It should be 
added that Hamilton and John Marshall were not in 
sympathy with the policy embodied in the Alien and 
Sedition Laws. 

These tyrannical acts excited fierce opposition, not ^, ,,. . . 

-' ^ ^ _ The Virginia 

only from the Republicans, as the party of Jefferson had and Kentucky 

■' '■ . resolutions of 

come to be called, but from moderate people in general. 1798. 
The legislature of Virginia adopted resolutions drafted 
by Madison which protested against the laws in question 
as ' ' palpable and alarming infractions of the constitu- 
tion. ' ' And the legislature of Kentucky adopted resolu- 
tions drawn by Jefferson which proceeded further to de- 



136 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Presidential 

nominations, 

1800. 



clare the Alien and Sedition Acts void. The strong 
ground was taken that the states had the right to judge 
of the constitutionahty of federal legislation, and to de- 
clare null and void whatever in their judgment was un- 
constitutional. This dangerous doctrine was the germ 
from which grew Calhoun's nullification theory of 1832, 
and secession in 1861. 

As the presidential election of 1800 approached, the 




John Adams ' Administration. 

K\V\\V^ Slates 
niTTTll Territories 
Sa Encli* Pea. 

^^ Spanish Pots. 



A bitter contest. 



opposing parties made their nominations. The Fed- 
eralists named Adams for president and C. C. Pinckney, 
of South Carolina, for vice-president. The Republicaa 
candidates were Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr, 
the brilliant and unscrupulous New York politician, for 
vice-president. 

The contest was the most bitter yet waged. Personal 
abuse and slander abounded on both sides. Every nerve 
was strained. The Alien and Sedition Acts had their 



Federalist Ideas. 137 



due weight. And the violent quarrels of the Federalist 
leaders precipitated the catastrophe. When the elec- 
toral votes were cast, it appeared that Adams was de- Adains° 
feated. Jefferson and Burr had each seventy-three votes, 
Adams sixty-five, Pinckney sixty-four, and Jay one. 
Under the constitution as it then stood, the House of thro\vn*into\he 
Representatives, voting by states, was obliged to decide °"^*^' 
whether Jefferson or Burr should be president. And the 
House was Federalist. A week was spent in balloting, 
with no choice. The air was full of schemes. Some 
proposed to stave off an election altogether, and to have 
Congress provide that some good Federalist should suc- 
ceed. Others wished to choose Burr president. The 
latter was a tempting plan, as that tricky politician would 
doubtless have been willing to make a good bargain. 
But Hamilton opposed. He insisted that Burr was an 
unscrupulous and dangerous man, and that the obvious 
will of the people should be obeyed by choosing Jeffer- 
son.* This prudent and patriotic advice was heeded, 
and on the thirty-sixth ballot Jefferson was duly elected. Jefferson, 1801. 

Thus for the first time an opposition party triumphed 
in a presidential election. We have become somewhat 
used to such alternations, and are accustomed to take the 
defeat of our candidates philosophically. But the good 
Federalist parsons in New England felt as if the world 
were coming to an end. 

* Burr was elected vice-president. In 1804, as his term drew to a close, lie 
wished to become governor of New York. He had quarreled with Jefferson, 
so that a renomination for the vice-presidency was impossible. And he could 
be chosen governor of New York only by Federalist support. This was re- 
fused him, by the influence of Hamilton. And Burr took his revenge by 
challenging Hamilton to a duel, in which the great Federalist leader was 
killed. 



CHAPTER X. 

SOCIETY BECOMES DEMOCRATIC. 

References. — Schouler ; McMaster ; Hinsdale : The Old 
Northwest; Roosevelt: The Winning of the West; Common- 
wealth Series : Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana ; Statesmen Series : 
Washington, Jefferson, Hamitto7i. 

The Federalists did not know that they were trying 

The democratic , . ^ , y. v> ^ ,- 

movement of to row their crait up Niagara. But aristocracy as a po- 
^^' htical theory was doomed. The whole social trend of 

the age was toward democracy. The French Revolu- 
tion, which shook Europe to its foundations, was merely 
the uprising of the masses against the privileges and 
tyranny of the classes. And this great European move- 
ment received a powerful impulse from the Revolution in 
America. French soldiers who had served this side the 
water went home full of the ideas of republican liberty. 
And at the same time the mere fact of a revolution was 
disorganizing here. The official and social aristocrats in 
the colonies were to a considerable extent Tories. The 
insurrection of necessity tended to break up the habit 
of reverence for authority and obedience to law. Dur- 
ing the eight years of war the American people moved 
fast and far on the road to democracy. The Fed- 
eralists saw and dreaded the turbulence and coarseness 
of the democratic movement. They could not under- 
The Federalists Stand that the masscs could really be trusted with po- 
standit." ^^' htical powcr, any more than England's Tudors could 
think of the commons as entitled to any voice in matters 
of state. So in their aristocratic aims the Federalists 

138 



Society Becomes Democratic. 139 



were merely striving vainly against the irresistible sweep 
of social development. They were like Dame Parting- 
ton, trying to sweep up the ocean with a broom. 

When the War of Independence was over, the Ameri- Settling the 

^ ■ _ wilderness. 

can people set to work to retrieve their shattered for- 
tunes. The virgin soil of a new world was theirs, and 
from this prosperity was to be wrought. Immigration 
began to flow toward the West, and the cabins of the 
settlers dotted the great forests far beyond the old 
frontier. New York at the time of the war had been 
merely the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk. Western 
New land was now taken up and clearmgs made near the 
headwaters of the Delaware, on the Genesee, along the 
beautiful lakes that lie south of the Ontario. The pop- 
ulation of the state increased from 340,000 in 1790 to 
589,000 in 1800. In the former year the first census 
under the constitution showed that there were four states 
each of which had more people than New York— Vir- 
ginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. 
But the census of 1820 found them all outstripped. 

The peace of 1783 defined the western boundary of the 
United States by the Mississippi. But west of the Alle- Kentucky and 
gheny Mountains was a trackless wilderness. A few 
hardy woodsmen had planted their block houses in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee before the war broke out. And 
the tide of settlers flowed steadily over the mountains 
even during the war. Kentucky was not inhabited by 
Indians, but they claimed it as a hunting-ground, and 
the settlers maintained a long and bloody conflict with 
the savages from across the Ohio. 

North of that great river there were at the end of the 
Revolution only a few military posts and a few villages of xen-itory''^^^^^'^ 
the French. The country teemed with game, while 
noble forests showed the richness of the soil. But the 



140 The Gt'oxuth of the American Nation. 



The Ordinance 

of 1787. 



Settlements in 
Ohio. 



Cleveland. 



Indians were numerous, and they were determined that 
white men should not destroy their homes. Virginia 
and New York had ceded their claims north of the Ohio 
to the United States, and in 1787 Congress was induced 
to sell a large tract of land to a company who desired to 
make a settlement. In order to provide for the govern- 
ment of the district Congress enacted the famous Ordi- 
nance of 1787, which was the true Magna Charta of the 
Northwestern States. Among its important provisions, 
the ordinance forbade slavery in all the territory north of 
the Ohio. The territory included all the land between 
the Ohio and the lakes, from Pennsylvania to the Mis- 
sissippi. The early immigrants were many of them rev- 
olutionary veterans, largely from New England, men of 
brains and energy. The first settlement was at Marietta 
(named from Marie Antoinette, the queen of France), 
in 1788. In the same year another company founded 
Cincinnati. This was first called " Losantiville," which 
name a pedantic schoolmaster devised from a mixture 
of French, Latin, and English, meaning "the city op- 
posite the mouth of the Licking." "A few weeks 
later," says McMaster, "the Indians scalped him." 
The way being opened, a stream of pioneers crossed 
the Pennsylvania mountains. They embarked in flat- 
boats at Pittsburg, floated down the Ohio, and soon 
its northern banks were lined with settlements. The 
shores of Lake Erie were neglected at first, owing to 
uncertainty about land titles. But Connecticut having 
at last arranged its claims with the United States, 
settlers took up the northern lands also. In 1796 
Moses Cleveland, agent of a land company which in 
the previous year had made a large purchase in the 
"Western Reserve" of Connecticut, laid the founda- 
tions of a city which was named from him. But the line 



Society Becomes Democratic. 141 

of the Ohio River was for some time yet the favorite. 
The form of government provided for this first terri- 
torv is interesting:, as its general Hnes have been followed territorial 

-' o> o ^ government. 

in later territorial enactments. Congress provided for a 
governor, secretary, and judges, and the necessary staff. 
The governor and judges were empowered to compile 
such laws as might be appropriate. When the popu- 
lation should include five thousand free males of full 
age there was to be a territorial legislature consisting of 
the governor, a council appointed by Congress, and an 
assembly elected by the people of the territory. Thus 
it will be seen that the governor had an absolute veto on 
the acts of the council and assembly. 

In 1790 the territory south of the Ohio was organized The Southwest 
in a similar form. The antislavery clause was expressly Territory, 
excepted, however. 

The Indians north of the Ohio were not disposed to war with the 
submit to the presence of white settlers, and began hos- Indians, 
tilities along the border. Governor St. Clair led an 

*' . , , , . ^ St. Clair's 

army against them, but he was surprised and his force defeat, 

■' ° "^ November, 

cut to pieces. General Anthony Wayne then took com- 1791- 
mand of the troops in the Northwest, and in the summer 
of 1794 he penetrated the Indian country and in a skil- victory,%94. 
ful campaign succeeded in accomplishing the utter over- 
throw of the savages. This victory was of untold im- 
portance to the new settlements, as it enabled the 
pioneers to make their solitary clearings in safety. The 
Americans had reason to believe that the Indians had 
received substantial aid from the British, who still held 
Detroit and other posts within the limits of the United 
States. But the Jay treaty of 1795 led to the abandon- 
ment of these posts and thus to the cessation of that 
cause of disturbance on the frontier. 

Governor St. Clair and many of the early settlers of 



142 The Groivth of the American Nation. 



Pioneer 
politics. 



Pioneer life a 
dominant fact. 



Pp. 1 16-17. 



Eli Whitney's 
cotton-gin, 1793. 



the Northwest were warmly attached to the Federal pol- 
icy of Washington and Adams. Cincinnati was named 
from the military order founded by the revolutionary 
officers ; the first county organized in the new territory 
was Washington ; Hamilton was another. But practically 
the violence of party strife in the East was not reflected in 
the new West. The conditions of pioneer life enforced 
a substantial equality which made democracy the natural 
social and political environment. Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee were therefore stanchly sustained by the settle- 
ments north of the Ohio in support of Jefferson. 

In the last decade of the eighteenth century the move- 
ment of population to the unsettled West thus began to 
assume considerable proportions. It has gone on since 
with accelerating velocity to the very shores of the 
Pacific. And through all the century since the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 was passed the life of the republic has 
taken a large part of its meaning from the fact of this 
constant westward current of migration and from the con- 
tinual existence and influence of pioneer communities in 
various stages of development. When population has 
become relatively stable throughout the Union there 
will begin a totally new era in the development of the 
nation. 

But while many people who were tired of working for 
a scanty subsistence on the rugged soil of New England 
were eagerly pressing toward the golden West, many 
more were finding profitable employment in new lines of 
activity at home. Commerce, as has been seen, took a 
new birth with the assured form of government under 
the constitution. Manufactures were spreading and 
multiplying in the Eastern and Middle States. And 
under the stimulus of Whitney's invention cotton was 
getting to be a valuable export from the Southern States 



Society Becomes Democratic. 



143 




along with rice, indigo, and tobacco. The cotton-gin had 
other remarkable results. Before it was used a slave could 
not clean more than a pound of cotton in a day. With the 
gin one slave could 
clean a thousand 
pounds a day. And 
not only did cotton 
lands in the South be- 
come valuable, but at 
the same time cotton 
factories at the North 
sprang up in great 
numbers, and slaves 
suddenly became a 
source of wealth to all 
the states south of 
Mason and Dixon's 
line. The cotton-gin 
thus ranks with the 
railroad and the elec- 
tric telegraph as a cause of profound economic and 
political changes. 

The expansion of manufactures and commerce in the 
Central and Eastern States tended to draw people to- 
gether in masses. In other words, the cities set out on 
that marvelous growth which is now so significant a fact 
in our social organism. When the first federal census 
was taken, in 1790, only about three per cent of the 
American people lived in cities of over 8,000 inhabitants, 
and there were only six such cities. . In 1800 the per cent 
in cities was four, and the number of such cities was still 
only six. In 1890 there were 437 cities of over 8,000 
people, containing twenty-nine per cent of the population. 
And ten per cent of the total population are found in the 



Far-reaching 

results. 



Born, 1765; died, 1825. Graduated at Yale, 
1792 ; invented saw-gin in same year, while 
in Georgia. 



Growth of 
cities. 



Conkliiig, p. 5. 



144 ^'^'^ Growth of the American Natio7i. 



Democratic 
tendency of 
social 
conditions. 



Immigration 
from Europe. 



Jefferson's fear 
of a monarchy. 



largest four cities. It will be seen that when the last 
century closed there were few important questions relat- 
ing to the management of these little towns. The prob- 
lem of the city, now so grave and difficult, has only of late 
emerged into the public consciousness. 

This intense ferment of life in developing the material 
resources of a new country was not favorable to aristo- 
cratic ideas. Strength and energy of character were con- 
tinually bringing new men to the surface. Things were 
to be had for the winning. And no limited class could 
long retain special privileges, either political or social. 
Sediment is deposited only in still water. And Ameri- 
can society in these years was a turbid torrent. 

At the same time an immigration from Europe had 
set in which was for that day so large as to alarm con- 
servative people. In the decade from the census of 1790 
to that of 1800 the population increased from 4,000,000 
to 5,000,000. Frenchmen came from San Domingo 
and other West India islands. There were Irishmen who 
were fugitives from what they deemed to be Saxon 
tyranny at home ; there were Scotchmen and English- 
men and Germans. Most of these people were full of 
the social discontent of Europe, many of them were im- 
bued with the political ideas which were rife in France, 
and especially with bitter hatred of England. And their 
turbulence and unbridled license of tongue were the ex- 
cuse to the Federalists for passing the Naturalization Act 
and the Alien and Sedition Laws in 1798. 

All this democratic sentiment was in opposition to the 
government. But there was another element of opposi- 
tion quite as strong. When Jefferson landed in New 
York in March, 1790, he was fresh from France and its 
effervescent enthusiasm for the "rights of man." He 
shared to the full in the views of the French radicals, and 



Society Becomes Democratic. 



145 



The Republican 
party. 



was alarmed to find that among the influential Ameri- 
can politicians there was a strong conservative sentiment. 
The light talk of the dinner table and the coffee-house 
commended a monarchical government as the most effi- 
cient and the most stable possible. And soon Jefferson 
made up his mind that there was a plot brewing among 
the Federalist leaders to convert the new republic into a 
monarchy. The stages by which he thought he saw that 
the impending change would come, were, first, a strong 
centralized go\ernment, then the presidency and Senate 
for life, then hereditary tenure. 

These views of Jefferson industriously disseminated 
fell in fertile soil among the old state rights Anti- Feder- 
alists. And from these, from some moderate Federalists, 
like Madison, who were repelled by Hamilton's schemes, 
and from the democratic clubs in the northern cities, the 
astute secretary was able to form an opposition party. 
As early as 1792 it had taken shape and Jefferson had 
given it the name " Republican," to indicate its cardinal 
principle of opposition to the alleged monarchical plot of 
the Federalists. 

The first two Congresses were Federalist in both 

^ _ Congress 

branches. The Third Congress, chosen in 1704, had a usually 

*. ' ^^' Federalist. 

Republican majority of ten in the Lower House, and a 
tie in the Senate. Vice-president Adams often had to 
give his casting vote. The Federalists were successful 
in 1796, and owing to the war feeling against France, 
again in 179S. But that was the last Federalist Con- 
gress. 

Party spirit in these first administrations was as bitter 
as it ever has been since. Difference of opinion and 
clash of ambitions led to suspicions, hatred, and abuse. 
The Federalists, said their adversaries, were aristocrats, 
were bought with British gold, were scheming to subvert 



Party spirit. 



Rancorous 
abuse of party 
opponents. 



■Washington 
\dlified. 



The revolution 
of iSoi. 



146 The Growth of the America7i Nation. 

the republic and to establish a monarchy. The Republi- 
cans were Jacobins, were atheists, were seeking, like 
their beloved friends in France, to overturn society itself. 
No politician has been more heartily hated than Hamil- 

ton. No party 
leader has been more 
vilely abused than 
Jefferson. No pres- 
ident has been worse 
lampooned than 
Washing-ton. A 
torrent of vituper- 
ation was poured on 
him by certain pa- 
pers. One writer 
called him a thief — 
declared that he had 
repeatedly over- 
drawn his salary. 
Even when his fare- 
well address ap- 
peared, it was sav- 
agely attacked. 
His motives were 
vilified ; and he was 
pursued to Mount Vernon with sneers and slander.* 

The election that seated Jefferson in the presidehtial 
chair he always regarded as a real revolution. It saved 
the republic, he held. If the Federalists had succeeded, 
a monarchy would have been almost the sure result. ^ 
But Jefferson's election hung on a slender thread. One 
Rhode Island elector voted for John Jay instead of Pinck- 
ney. And the South Carolina electors were willing to 

* Washington died in 1799. 




Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. 
Born, 1746; died, 1S25. Educated at Oxford and 
the Temple, England ; lawyer and revolution- 
ary soldier; member of Philadelphia con- 
vention, 17S7 ; minister to France, 1796 ; major- 
general in United States army ; Federalist 
candidate for vice-president, 1800, and for pres- 
ident, 1804 and 1808. 



> 



Society Becomes Democratic. 



H7 



vote for Pinckney and Jefferson, but not for Adams. But 
General Pinckney declined to accept such a vote. If he 
had felt otherwise, he would have had seventy-two votes, 
and would have been vice-president. Had the Rhode 
Island electors all voted loyally for Pinckney, their vote, 
with that of South Carolina, would have tied him with 
Jefferson, and the Federalist House of Representatives 
would have elected Pinckney promptly to the presidency. 
Again, the New York legislature, which chose the elec- 
tors, was elected in the spring, although the term did 
not begin until the following winter. When it appeared 
that the Republicans had a majority of the new legisla- 
ture, Hamilton wrote to Governor John Jay, suggesting 
that the old legislature be convened and a law be enacted 
relegating the choice of electors to the people by con- 
gressional districts. This would have been entirely legal, 
and would have insured the election of Adams and Pinck- 
ney. But Governor Jay, like General Pinckney, was a 
man of scrupulous honor, and he declined to act as 
proposed. 

In truth, the Federalists were doomed. Their folly in 
enacting the Alien and Sedition Laws, and the jealousy 
and quarrels of their leaders, were enough to defeat any 
party. And when the party of Jefferson was once in 
power, no efforts of the Federalists could ever dislodge 
it. The party of Hamilton and Adams proved a poor 
opposition. They occasionally had a majority in one 
House of Congress, but they never again came near 
electing a president. And after the second war with 
England they disappeared altogether. 



How Jefferson 
might have 
been defeated. 



End of the 
Federalist 
party. 



CHAPTER XI. 



JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANISM. 



Jefferson. 



Personal char- 
acteristics. 



Jeffersonian 
simplicity. 



References. — Schouler; McMaster; Andrews: United States; 
Henry Adams : United States ; Statesmen Series : Jefferson, 
Gallatin. 

Thomas Jefferson came to the presidency at a time 
peculiarly opportune for his success. The gist 'of his 
political philosophy was to do as little governing as pos- 
sible. And the circumstances of the country were such 
that at just that time it was bound to prosper under al- 
most any conditions. And this abundant prosperity of 
every section of the nation the masses of the people at 
once attributed to the wise policy of the philosopher 
president. His personality was omnipotent with his 
party. And his political doctrines for a half century 
were the common creed of the dominant democracy. 

The first Republican president was born in 1743, in 
Virginia. He was tall, slender, sandy complexioned, 
somewhat shy and awkward in manner. His six feet 
two and a half inches were usually attired plainly and 
in a manner to indicate his contempt for fashion. In- 
deed, he quite horrified some of the ceremonious diplo- 
mats by his utter indifiference to social forms. He was 
known to come in from his garden arrayed very care- 
lessly in order to receive a foreign minister in full dress. 
He considered the formal system of precedence observed 
at dinner parties to be a survival of aristocracy entirely 
out of place in a plain republic. All, he said, were 
equal, without regard to employment, age, or official 

148 



Jefferson ia n Rep u blica n ism . 



149 



rank. And so at his entertainments when dinner was 
announced the ladies went in first in a flock and sat 
where they pleased. The gentlemen then followed e?i Peie-meie, 
??iasse, and sat where they could. This system Jeffer- 
son called "a perfect pele-mele." 

A storv was lono- current, and is still believed by 



H. Adams, I. 

196-8. 



liirii'iiiiiBHiii 



iiiiiiiiiirai.1 




Thomas Jefferson. 
Born, 1743; died, July 4, 1S26. Was graduated at William and Mary College; 
admitted to the bar, 1767 ; member of the Continental Congress, 1775-6 ; Dec- 
laration of Independence, 1776 ; member of legislature of Virginia and leader 
in important legal reforms, 1776 ; governor of Virginia, 1779 ; Congress, 1783 ; 
minister to France, 1784-9; secretary of state, 1790-4; vice-president, 1797- 
1801 ; president, 1801-9. Founder of the University of Virginia. 



150 The Grozi'th of the American Nation. 



The story of 
Jefferson's first 
inauguration. 

Morse, 210 ; 
Andrews, I., 

308. 



The president's 
message. 



Mental traits. 



some, that Jefferson, at his first inauguration, rode to 
the Capitol unattended, with his own hands tied his horse 
to the fence, and walked unceremoniously into the Sen- 
ate chamber. This particular bit of Jeffersonian sim- 
plicity seems to be pure fiction. The president-elect 
walked to the Capitol attended by an escort both civil 
and military. The horse story was invented by an im- 
aginative English traveler. 

Another of Jefferson's democratic ideas was the presi- 
dent's message. Under his predecessors it had been 
customary on the assembling of Congress for the presi- 
dent to meet the two Houses together and read to them 
a formal address. The Houses then separated, each de- 
liberated on the speech, adopted a suitable reply, and 
then walking in procession to the president's house had 
this reply duly read to him. This, of course, was in 
imitation of the English custom. But Jefferson de- 
clared that such a procedure was monarchical and use- 
less. What he had to say to Congress he said in writing. 
The reply was dispensed with. And this very sensible 
innovation has been followed by all our presidents since 
1801. 

The mental characteristics of this unceremonious Vir- 
ginian were as striking as were his physique and his 
social ways. His hobby was omniscience. Literature 
he read with avidity. He studied and practiced scien- 
tific agriculture with great exactness of detail. He in- 
vented an improved plow. He listened with sympathetic 
attention to the first crude proposals to apply steam to 
machinery, and at once foresaw some of the vast conse- 
quences. Until the Revolutionary War he was an 
ardent devotee of the violin. He made experiments in 
astronomy, and examined with great interest the remains 
of antiquity in France. He had positive opinions on 



Jeffcrsonian Rcpublicanis»i. 151 



architecture — himself drawing the plans for the Univer- 
sity of Virginia and for his own mansion at Monticello,^- 
and giving close attention to those of the Capitol at 
Washington. Mr. Jefferson was accused by the Feder- 
alists with being an atheist. This was a mistake. Like 
Franklin, he was an unbeliever in orthodox Christianity, 
but he was not an unbeliever in God. 

It will be seen that Jefferson's most strikinof quality 

.^. i- . ,. His versatilit\ 

was his great versatility of knowledge and interest. He 
could talk intelligently about everything — and he did. 
His tongue ran incessantly, and his pen kept pace, as his 
voluminous and varied correspondence shows. One 
thing, and only one thing, could silence him — demand 
for a public address. Mr. Jefferson was not an orator. 
When his voice was raised much above conversational 
pitch, some infirmity of the throat caused sound to cease 
altogether. So he made no speeches. Conversation and 
the pen were his weapons. 

Here, then, was a philosopher, who delighted in every 

'^ . . -^ His political 

form of human thought. His profession of the law and Weas. 
the tumultuous condition of the times had turned his 
main energies to political reform. He had had large ex- 
perience in public life, in the legislature of his native 
state, and in the Congress of the United States, as gov- 
ernor of Virginia, as minister to France, as secretary of 
state under Washington, and as vice-president. He 
was the organizer and unquestioned chief of a great po- 
litical party which was now ready, by its possession of 
the legislative branch, to embody in practice whatever 
theories the versatile mind of the Virginian should 
conceive. 

And these theories were very definite. The election 

* It is said that the builders at Monticello had made considerable progress 
before they discovered that the ingenious architect had forgotten to provide 

for any stainvays. 



The Gro2vth of the American Nation. 



The revolution 
of iSoi. See p. 
146. 



lefferson's 
Works, v., 331. 



Nature of the 
Union. 



Strict con- 
struction. 



The judge of 
infraction of 
the constitution. 



Pp. 135-6. 



of 1 800-1 seemed to him a real political revolution. The 
country, he asserted, had been saved from a plot to make 
it a monarchy. The ship of state was now to be put on 
the Republican tack. 

Jefferson's view of the nature and interpretation of the 
constitution was directly the reverse of that held by 
Hamilton and the high Federalists generally. The fed- 
eral government, Jefferson held, was essentially only a 
sort of committee on foreign relations. As he wrote to 
a friend in 1800 : " The true theory of our constitution 
is surely the wisest and best, that the states are in- 
dependent as to everything within themselves, and united 
as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the 
general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, 
and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other 
nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants 
will manage the better the more they are left free to man- 
age for themselves, and our general government may be 
reduced to a very simple organization and a very in- 
expensive one ; a few plain duties to be performed by a 
few servants." 

With this conception of the nature of the Union his 
theory of constitutional interpretation readily accorded. 
The document, he held, should be construed strictly. 
The federal government has no power not given it ex- 
pressly or by necessary implication. And any exercise 
of power beyond those limits is a clear infraction of the 
constitution. 

But who shall judge of an alleged violation of the or- 
ganic law at the hands of the federal authorities ? The 
Supreme Court, said the Federalists. The several states, 
said Jefferson. In the resolutions of the Kentucky 
legislature in 1789, adopted on account of the obnoxious 
Alien and Sedition Laws, and drafted by Jefferson him- 



Jefferson ia n Rep u bliea n ism . 



153 



The purchase 
of Louisiana, 
1803. 



self, occur these words: "As in all other cases of 
compact among powers having no common judge, each {f,'^'^rf°'V^ 
party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of in- 464- 
fractions as of the mode and measure of redress. ' ' We 
can see in these doctrines both nullification and seces- 
sion. But it is hardly likely that Jefferson would have 
carried his views to those extremes. 

Early in the course of the new administration an op- 
portunity was given for testing the working of strict con- 
struction. The province of Louisiana, including the 
land from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and 
from the Gulf of Mexico to British America, had origi- 
nally belonged to France. In 1 762 that nation had trans- 
ferred the territory to Spain. The Mississippi was the 
natural outlet of the Ohio Valley, as transportation over 
the Alleghenies, in those days before railroads were de- 
vised, was impracticable on any large scale. But the 
Spanish officials at New Orleans interposed vexatious re- 
strictions on trade, and the new western settlements in 
Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee were virtually bottled up 
by the owners of the mouth of the Mississippi. In 1800 
Spain, by a secret treaty with Napoleon, restored Louisi- 
ana to France. This fact was ascertained by the Ameri- 
can government late in 1801 and at once excited grave 
alarm. Spain was a troublesome neighbor, but France 
would surely prove a dangerous one. Accordingly 
Monroe was sent as a special envoy to France, to act in 
conjunction with the resident minister, Livingston, in 
the purchase of New Orleans ; $2,000,000 were allowed 
for that purpose. But Napoleon was on the eve of war 
with England. He knew that he could not hold his col- 
onies while England ruled the sea. And he offered the 
Americans the whole of Louisiana. They had no 
authority to strike such a bargain. But there was no 



Napoleon offers 
the whole 
province. 



154 ^^^^ Grotvth of the Awencmt Nation. 



Jefferson's 
quandary. 



Louisiana 
bought in spite 
of the consti- 
tution. 



time to send for instructions, and so they closed with the 
offer, trusting to be vindicated by the necessity of the 
case and the overwhelming advantages to be obtained. 
The price was $15,000,000. * 

Jefferson was in a quandary. There was not a line in 
the constitution which directly authorized the acquisition 
of foreign territory, and the president thought that 
action should not be taken until an amendment could be 
adopted. But the Senate _saw that the chance would 
probably be lost if there should be delay, and so ratified 
the treaty at once. Republican theories of strict con- 




-->x>^ 



The Territory of the Present 

UNITED STATES 

After Feb. 1, 1801. 

Spain ceded La- to Stance 




struction were scattered to the winds. But the outlet of 
the Mississippi was secured and the national area doubled. 
It was the most important event since the adoption of 
the constitution, and the most brilliant in the history of 
Jefferson's eight years as president. 

Jefferson's ideas as to finance were as positive as those 

* The price was 80,000,000 francs, which were then estimated at eighteen 
and three fourths cents each. McMaster, II. ,627-8. 



Jeffersonian Republianiism. 155 



on the sphere of government. In the first place, he Finance, 
favored entire simplicity in the methods. He wrote to 
Gallatin in 1802 : "I think it an object of great impor- 
tance .... to simplify our system of finance 
and to bring it within the comprehension of every mem- 
ber of Congress." He thought that Hamilton's devices 
were altogether too complicated and puzzling. 

Public debt Jefferson regarded as an unmixed evil, and 
funding for a long period as an injustice to posterity. ^ ' ^" '^''^^• 
Each generation should, as far as possible, pay its way 
as it goes. Hence, the public service should be admin- 
istered with the utmost economy. In laying taxes, pro- 
vision should be made first of all for the interest on the 
debt, then for an annual sum to be set aside for the ex- 
tinction of the principal, and last of all for such expendi- 
tures as were absolutely necessary in administering the 
government. 

The internal revenue taxes Jefferson did not approve, j„ternai 
thinking those which could be collected at the custom- revenue, 
houses much more convenient and less obnoxious. 

The new secretary of the treasury was Albert Gallatin, Q^n^tin 
a Pennsylvanian of Swiss birth. His administration was 
eminently successful. The national debt under the Fed- 
eralist administrations, from 1791 to 1801, had increased 
$7,000,000. The grand total January i, 1801, was $80,- 
000,000. On the first of January, 1808, it was $65,- fhe'^pubi?" debt. 
000,000. And yet meanwhile Louisiana was purchased 
for $15,000,000, and the internal revenue system had 
been abolished (1802). 

Gallatin estimated that with an annual sum of $7,300, - provision for 
000 for the sinking fund, the debt would be paid by 18 17. 
After the purchase of Louisiana, he asked $8,000,000 
annually for the sinking fund, and estimated that thus the 
old debt would still be paid by 181 7, and the new (the 



156 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Greatly in- 
creased receipts 
at the custom- 
houses. 



Jefferson and 
the civil 
service. 



He makes a 
few partisan 
removals. 



$15,000,000 for Louisiana), by 1821. Of course the 
Embargo and the War of 181 2 greatly reduced the 
national income and increased the debt. And yet the 
last dollar was paid in 1835. 

These great achievements of Gallatin were made pos- 
sible not only by the great economy with which all de- 
partments of government were administered but also be- 
cause of the enormous growth of the customs revenue. 
The receipts at the custom-houses in Adams's adminis- 
tration were $30,000,000. In Jefferson's first term they 
were $45,000,000, and in his second term they were 
$60,000,000. 

The accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency was 
the first instance in our history of a change of national 
parties, and we have become accustomed to see on such 
occasions a general change in the federal civil offices. 
There was a different view of the public service in 1801, 
it being taken for granted that a competent and honest 
official would serve for life. Mr. Jefferson did not make 
a ' ' clean sweep. ' ' But it annoyed him to find that the 
ofiice-holders were all Federalists. He thought there 
ought to be an equal division between the parties ; but, 
as he complained, he soon learned that ' ' few die and 
none resign. ' ' And so he made places for some Repub- 
licans by removing the Federalist incumbents. He chose 
for this purpose those whom Adams had appointed in 
the closing weeks of his administration, and those who 
had made themselves especially active as partisans. In 
all he displaced thirty-nine. Washington, in his two 
terms, had removed nine, one of whom was a defaulter. 
Adams had removed ten, one being a defaulter. 

It cannot be said that the spoils system was introduced 
by Jefferson. We owe that valuable feature of our 
national politics to Andrew Jackson. But after all the 



Jeffersonian Rcpublicanisju. 157 

principle of partisan removals was that on which Jeffer- 
son acted, though to a limited extent. 

There was one class of public servants that was be- 
yond the president's reach. The federal judges held {h'^'^''^|j"(,ia"*^ 
by the constitutional tenure of good behavior, and thus 
could be removed only by impeachment. They were all 
Federalists, and in their hands was the interpretation of 
the constitution. Jefferson thought that this was all 
wrong, and that it ought to be possible for the president 
to remove the judges, at least on address of the Houses 
of Congress. But an amendment was impracticable, 
and so the new administration set out to do what it could. 
An act of 1802 repealed the Federalist judiciary act of 
iSoi, and thus Adams's "midnight" appointees were 
summarily legislated out of office — a proceeding of which 
the constitutionality was decidedly questionable. At 
the same time, the sessions of the Supreme Court were 
suspended for fourteen months, and in the meantime im- 
peachment was tried. 

Tudee Samuel Chase was a violent partisan who had impeachment 

...... of Judge Chase. 

not scrupled to show strong bias durmg trials under the 
Sedition Law, and who had delivered a political philip- 
pic to a grand jury on occasion of Jefferson's election. 
He was impeached for this conduct. The trial before 
the Senate showed plainly that the judge had been 
guilty of bad taste, but the constitutional number of sen- 
ators could not be induced to hold that this was a high 
crime or a misdemeanor, and so he was acquitted. Jef- 
ferson was deeply disappointed. The weapon of impeach- 
ment had proved futile. And to the president's great 
discontent Marshall and his colleagues were able to go on 
their way unmolested. At a later date, when some of the 
great constitutional decisions of the Supreme Court were 
rendered, Jefferson wrote indignantly of the court : 



158 The Growth of the American Nation. 



General pros- 
perity. 



' ' That body, like gravity, ever acting with noiseless feet 
and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, 
and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the 
special governments. ' ' 

Throughout all these opening years of the nineteenth 
century the country was prospering on every hand. 
The total population, less than 4,000,000 in 1790 and 
over 5,000,000 in 1800, had passed 7,000,000 in 18 10. 




Ohio becomes 
a state. 



Shaler, I., 527. 



Immigration flowed in from Europe. The land beyond 
the Alleghenies was becoming filled with people. 

In 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided into 
Ohio and Indiana, and in 1803 Ohio became a state. 
The territory of Michigan was formed in 1805, and the 
territory of Illinois in 1809. Meanwhile commerce was 
rolling up. The total of imports and exports in 1800 
was $162,000,000. In 1807, the year before the Embargo, 
the total was $246,000,000. 

The people at large felt that this abundant growth was 



Jefferson ia n Rep u Mica n ism . 



159 






largely due to political conditions. They saw the na- Triumphs of 

,",,,. , - , J ^ ii the adininistra- 

tional debt being- reduced every day, and at the same tion. 
time the vexatious excise taxes remitted. Government 
was conducted economically. There was no longer any 
apprehension of war. The national honor had been bril- 
liantly defended against the Tripolitan pirates. The 
West was secure, as New Orleans was in our hands, and 
a vast territory was added to the national domain. All 
this the Republi- 
can administration 
had done. And so 
it was easy to infer 
that it had also in- 
creased population 
and trade. On New 
Year's Day, 1802, 
the president re- 
ceived a present 
sent him by the 
farmers of western 
Massachusetts. It 
was a cheese 
weighing 1,235 
pounds, and was 
inscribed, "The 
greatest cheese in 
America — for the 
greatest man in America." That was the general sen- 
timent, as plainly appeared at the election of 1S04. 

In 1800, Jefferson had seventy-three electoral votes and 
Adams sixtv-five. In 1804, Tefferson had one hundred Election of 1804. 

-' •' .. Collapse of the 

sixty-two electors and Pinckney, the Federahst can- Federalists, 
didate, had fourteen. Only Connecticut ("the land of 
steady habits"), Delaware, and a part of Maryland 




Faneuil Hall, Boston. 



i6o The Growth of the American Nation. 



Philosophy of 

Jefferson's 

triumph. 

McMaster, III. 



Democracy not 
incompatible 
with strong 
government. 



were left to the once powerful party of Hamilton and 
Adams. 

Jefferson explained his sweeping triumph on the 
ground that the Federalists had come over to him in 
masses. He had won his fight for republicanism, and 
the nation was with him. Others insist, on the contrary, 
that the Republican party had become nationalized. 

Both are probably largely correct. As has been said, 
a general advance in democracy characterized the age. 
The nation was becoming democratic in ideas, methods, 
and social usages. 

But this flood of democracy was by no means republi- 
can in the Jeffersonian sense. It was not and is not at all 
incompatible with strong government. Jefferson was its 
absolute master — as was Jackson at a later day. And 
it is entirely true that the logic of circumstances brought 
the Republican administration to Federalist principles. 

In short, the nation by irresistible sweep was becom- 
ing a democracy. But the republican democracy just 
as inevitably became national. The ideas of Hamilton 
were wrought out by Jefferson and Gallatin. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Jefferson's 
theories as to 
war. 



JEFFERSON S FOREIGN POLICY. 

References. — Schouler ; McMaster ; Henry Adams (he 
treats this subject at length) ; Statesmen Series : Jejferson, 
Gallatin, John Quincy Adams. 

Jefferson's ideas as to war and commerce were as 
original and positive as might have been expected from 
so versatile a philosopher. He was far in advance of his 
age, or, for that matter, of our age, in regarding war as 
a mere relic of barbarism, which civilized society should 
have enough wisdom to avoid. No war, he held, was 
justifiable unless a defensive one. For this reason he was 
strongly opposed to a permanent army and navy. An 
army he thought needless, dangerous, and expensive. 
The militia of the states would be quite sufficient to protect 
us from attack. A navy, except what might be needed 
to defend our harbors, was liable to all the objections he 
brought against an army, and besides was very likely to 
embroil us needlessly in foreign quarrels. The gallant 
little squadron which Adams had created, Jefferson 
wished to reduce to a peace footing at once. He pro- 
posed to pay off the officers and men, and to lay uj^ the 
ships if possible in the east branch of the Potomac, in 
charge of a single man. That, he thought, would be 
both cheap and safe. 

Could he have directed society absolutely according His theories as 
to his preferences, Jefferson would have had no foreign o commerce, 
commerce at all. Writing of the United States in 1785, 
he said : ' ' Were I to indulge my own theory, I sliould 

161 



1 62 The Groiuth of the American Nation. 



Jefferson's 
Works, I., 465 



wish them to practice neither commerce nor navigation, 
but to stand, with respect to Europe, precisely on the 
footing" of China. We should thus avoid wars, and all 
our citizens would be husbandmen. 

But of course he recognized these ideas as Utopian 
dreams. In fact, the new nation had developed a large 
and increasing commerce, and this at once brought us 
in touch with the rest of the world. What, then, should 
be our policy as to foreign relations ? 

Jefferson's plan was formulated in the well-known 
Foreign policy, words of his iuaugural, ' ' peace and honest friendship 
with all nations, entangling alliances with none." This, 
of course, was just the policy so strongly urged by Wash- 
ington in his farewell address : ' ' The great rule of con- 
duct for us in regard to foreign Nations is, in extending 
our commercial relations, to have with them as little 

political connection as possible 'Tis our 

true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any 
portion of the foreign world." These ideas of Wash- 
ington and Jefferson have now become traditional prin- 
ciples of American diplomacy, and form one phase of 
what is loosely called the Monroe Doctrine. As our 
only relations with foreign countries should be com- 
mercial, Jefferson was inclined to doubt the necessity of 
a diplomatic service. 

But if our rights should be wantonly attacked, what 
should be our remedy? In his view we had an easy and 
effective means of coercion, without resorting to war. 
Our commerce he regarded as absolutely essential to 
Europe. This, then, we should grant to friends, and 
withhold from assailants. Thus by the mere compulsion 
of their interests nations would be constrained to do us 
justice. Jefferson called this "peaceable coercion." 

These opinions of the Republican president the course 



" Peaceable 
coercion." 



Jeffersoii s Foreign Policy. 163 

of events made to be no mere speculative theories of a 
closet philosopher. They were the working principles of 
administration for a series of years, and had profound 
consequences on the issues of history. 

When Mr. Jefferson became president he found the 
United States already embroiled with Tripoli. It is not War with 
easy for us to realize that a hundred years ago our 
country, in common with Europe, paid these Moham- 
medan pirates an annual bribe to secure the safety of our 
commerce in the Mediterranean, besides occasional large 
sums as ransom for unfortunate mariners who had been 
captured and made slaves. In 1801 the pasha of Trip- 
oli complained that the Americans had not been as gen- 
erous to him as to the rulers of Tunis and Algiers, and so 
declared war. A squadron was sent to the Mediter- 
ranean and for several years carried on active hostilities 
with the Tripolitans. The city of Tripoli was bombarded 
several times, and in 1805 the pasha was glad to make 
peace. There was no more tribute paid to that nest of 
robbers. Our little navy in these operations displayed 
some of those qualities which a few years later were to 
make its renown so brilliant. 

Indeed, it is to the corsairs of Algiers that the Amer- q^. j^^f-jj^^ 
ican navy is due. The United States had no ships of "^^'>' '794- 
war during Washington's first term. But the depre- 
dations of the Algerines made it plain that cannons afloat 
were needed if we were to have any foreign commerce 
under our own flag. Accordingly, in 1794 Congress 
authorized the construction of six frigates. These were 
wisely planned to be heavier and stronger than any p 
European ships of the same class. They were the 
United States, Constitidion, Constellation, President, ^,_ 

' The navy 

Congress, and Chesapeake — names famous in our department, 
naval annals. The navy department was created in 



1 64 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Reduction of 
the navy. 



Renewal of 
the European 
war, 1803. 



Napoleon 
victorious on 
land, England 
on the sea. 



Need of 
colonial 
products. 



1798, on occasion of the trouble with France, and at the 
same time other vessels were added. The act providing 
for a peace establishment was passed the day before 
Adams's term expired. By this act the president was 
authorized to retain thirteen ships, six being in commis- 
sion. The large reduction in the number of officers 
made it possible to select those who had proved their 
good qualities, and so was formed the force which was 
so efficient in the war with Tripoli and later with 
England. 

In 1803 the war between England and France was 
renewed. The peace of the previous year proved a 
mere truce. And from this time until 18 15 there raged 
a struggle which became world wide. Nation after 
nation was dragged in. Neutrality in Europe became 
impossible. 

On land, Napoleon was invincible. He gave law from 
Gibraltar to Berlin. No enemy remained whom the 
French armies could reach. On the ocean, England 
was equally invincible. Her fleets swept the waters of 
every sea. There was no hostile navy which she did 
not shatter. Hostile commerce was impossible. 

But the sea-shore was the limit of battle. The armies 
of Napoleon could not leave the coast. The fleets of 
England were confined to the water. Still each strug- 
gled to assail the other. England held the ports of 
France and her allies in strict blockade. And Napoleon 
forbade any European trade with his insular enemy. 

But if England needed the continental market for her 
wares, France and Spain needed the produce of their 
colonies. The sugar of the West India Islands, the 
coffee, hides, and indigo of South America, the silver of 
Mexico and Peru, the products of China and Manila, 
all were wanted in Europe. And if the British navy 



Jefferson s Foreign Policy 



i6 = 



could destroy this commerce, the resources of the conti- 
nent, and hence of France, would be seriously crippled. 
By the rules of the old colonial system the trade between 
a European nation and its colonies was forbidden to alien 
ships. But in the earlier part of the revolutionary wars, 
France, seeing that her ships could no longer keep the 
sea, opened all her ports to neutrals. England, how- 
ever, insisted that a trade which was illegal in time of 
peace could not be legalized in time of war. Hence any 
neutral ship carrying a cargo directly between a bellig- 
erent and a colony of that belligerent was subject to 
capture. 

But it was admitted that trade between a neutral port 
and that of a belligerent was lawful. And if so, did it 
matter what the cargo was ? Suppose merchandise was 
shipped from Havana to New York, was there landed 
and duly entered at the custom-house, was then imme- 
diately reladen in the same ship and taken to Spain. 
Was such a voyage illegal ? The English admiralty 
courts decided that such a procedure was strictly legal. 
Landing the goods broke the voyage in two, and each 
by itself was entirely legitimate. This was in 1800. 
And the ministry at that time expressly approved the 
principle involved. 

Then came the peace, and the whole matter dropped 
into abeyance. But when the war was renewed in 1803, 
the American merchants were quick to seize the advan- 
tages of neutrals. Soon not a French or Spanish or 
Dutch ship was afloat. And American shipping 
swarmed in every sea. They were loaded with the prod- 
ucts of every clime, sailed to the United States, broke 
the voyage by landing cargo, immediately reshipped it, 
and proceeded on their way. Thus England saw her- 
self deprived of the full effect of her naval supremacy. 



The direct 
colonial trade 
forbidden. 



See p. 122. 



" Breaking 
the voyage. 



Decision of 
Lord Stowell 
in the case of 
the Polly, April 
29, 1800. 



The carrying 
trade. 



1 66 The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



Decision of 
Lord Stowell 
ill the case of 
the Essex, 



The decision 
unfair. 



Paper block- 
ades. 



Order in 
Council, 



1806. 



Her enemies prospered as in time of peace. And her 
own courts had made the process legal. 

But when this was clear, the English admiralty courts 
took a new position. In the case of the Essex, in 1805, 
Lord Stowell reversed his own decision of 1800, and 
held that the intent of the voyage must be considered. 
The old device of breaking the voyage, he now declared, 
was an obvious evasion. The voyage from the United 
States to a belligerent port with belligerent goods was 
illegal. Ship and cargo were condemned. And at once 
American ships by the score were captured and made 
prize. 

This decision was perhaps equitable in a rough sort of 
way. But it was making new law, not interpreting 
the law as it was. And it would have kept closer to the 
equities if it had rather been announced as the policy of 
the administration, with fair notice to neutrals. But 
justice to neutrals was not a matter of concern to British 
ministers or judges just at that time. To hurt the ene- 
mies of England and at the same time to make fat prizes 
at no matter whose expense, in those days seemed to the 
people of Great Britain merely brilliant statecraft. The 
Americans called it piracy. 

However this may have been, the next series of steps 
taken by the belligerent nations was an audacious vio- 
lation of international law, and led to a policy of spolia- 
tion on lawful American commerce most high handed 
and outrageous. 

In May, 1806, a British Order in Council put the 
whole coast of Europe in blockade, from Brest to the 
Elbe, some 800 miles. There could be no trade to any 
of these ports without a British license previously pro- 
cured and paid for. 

The French reply was delayed, but it was sufficiently 



Jefferson s Foreign Policy. 167 

emphatic. November 21, 1806, Napoleon issued what 

became known as "the BerHn decree." He happened to J'^^^^'^'i'V 

■t^^ decree, ibo6. 

be in that city after his crushing victory over Prussia. 
In this famous document Napoleon proclaimed that the 
whole coast of the British Islands was in a state of block- 
ade. All trade with those islands, or with their products 
or the products of their colonies, was forbidden. This 
decree put American commerce at the mercy of French 
privateers. 

The British Order in Council of January 7, 1807, order in Coun- 
professed to be in retaliation for the Berlin decree, and *^' ' ^ °''' 
simply forbade all traffic with ports of France or her 
allies, to any nation whatsoever. Subsequent decrees of 
Napoleon and British Orders in Council were only sup- 
plementary to these extraordinary documents. 

Thus was constituted a paper blockade of all the ^^^ American 
European shores. England could not spare a third of dilemma. 
the ships necessary for a real blockade of the coasts of 
her enemies. And Napoleon had no navy. But the 
American mariner was in this dilemma : if he sailed to 
or from any British port, he was liable to capture by the 
French ; if he sailed to or from any non-British port, 
he was quite sure to be made a prize by the English. 
It reminds one of the colored minister's assertion that 
only two roads lead from this world to the next, "the 
broad and narrow road that leads to destruction, and the 
narrow and broad road that leads to damnation." 

But commercial restrictions were not the sole cause of 
foreign complications for Jefferson. We had another 
grievance, this time exclusively against England. 

The vast wars of that nation made it impossible to „, . 

>■ The impress- 

man her great navy with volunteers alone. In any '"'^"' °^ 

British port the press gang was always at work. Sailors 

were seized at their lodgings, in the streets, from the '^ep. 122. 



1 68 The Growth of the American Nation. 



British sailors 
in American 

ships. 



England 
disregards 
naturalization 
and certificates 
of citizenship. 



Hard to tell an 
American from 
an Englishman. 



deck of a merchant ship, and hurried on board a man-of- 
war. On the high seas British merchantmen were 
stopped and their crews depleted. 

Had this been all, we should have had no cause to 
complain. But the British claimed the right to stop any- 
merchant ship of any nation on the high seas and take 
from it any British subjects among her crew. And the 
trouble was aggravated by the fact that many British 
sailors were actually found in the American service. The 
enormous expansion of American commerce made it 
impossible for American sailors to be found in sufficient 
numbers. At the same time wages in the American 
service became very high — some three times the British 
scale. In consequence, sailors left English ships in 
every American port. They enlisted by thousands in 
the American merchant marine, and were found under 
the American flag the world around. 

The arbitrary impressment of Englishmen from the 
deck of an American ship was sufficiently aggravating. 
But that was not all. Many of these sailors had become 
naturalized citizens of the United States. England, 
however, claimed that without her consent no British 
subject could give up his allegiance. And so British 
naval officers gave no heed to naturalization papers. 

Further, the papers which sailors carried certifying to 
their American citizenship were easily transferred from 
hand to hand. And they were easily forged. There is 
little doubt that very many of these fraudulent certifi- 
cates were afloat. And knowing this fact British officers 
were inclined to disregard protections altogether. 

Another difficulty was that it was not always easy to 
tell an American from a British sailor. Honest mistakes 
doubtless were made. But as the need for men grew 
pressing, it is more than likely that a British officer was 



Jefferson s Foreign Policy. 169 



always convinced that any good-looking and stalwart 
seaman on an American ship was surely an Englishman. 

In these ways a large number of Americans were im- 
pressed into the British navy. How many it would not 
be easy to tell. 

Mr. Jefferson struggled with these outrages on Ameri- 
can commerce and nationalitv as well as he could. He Jefferson's 

^ . diplomacy. 

had no idea of war, and sedulously avoided strengthen- 
ing the army and navy. But there was a long series of 
diplomatic remonstrances, with nothing accomplished. 
British officers learned to look on the Americans with 
contempt, as a nation which would not fight. 

In 1807 British arrogance seemed to reach its climax. 
The American frigate Chesapeake was overhauled on the Outrage on 

th& Chesapeake, 

high seas, and three alleged deserters from the British navy 1S07. 
were taken from its crew. Unfortunately the frigate was 
not prepared for action — a fact disgraceful to the adminis- 
tration of the navy department. Popular indignation 
was hot from one end of the land to the other. The 
people wanted war. 

But this was Jefferson's chance to try his scheme of 

11 -DA/— T-> ■ • -11 • The Embargo, 

' peaceable coercion. As Great Britain was unwilling to December, 
make adequate reparation, the president induced Congress 
to pass, in December, 1807, an act declaring an Embargo 
on all American shipping. Our ports were to be sealed 
absolutely to foreign trade. Jefferson was sure that the 
loss of American commerce would bring Great Britain 
to terms. Meanwhile a number of gun-boats were con- 
structed for the defense of our harbors. The navy was 
something for which the administration had no use. It 
was planned to lay up the frigates in case of war, and 
merely to retire into our shell, like a turtle. 

The Embargo was enforced with great difficulty. But 
it ruined the commerce of New England and the Middle 



1807. 



170 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Effects of the 
Embargo. 



The Force Act. 



Failure and 
repeal of the 
Embargo. 



Retirement of 
Jefferson. 



States. The price of wheat fell from two dollars a bushel 
to seventy-five cents. And general distress succeeded 
the abounding prosperity of Jefferson's early years. The 
effect on Great Britain turned out to be inappreciable. 
At all events, so far as modifying the political action of 
that nation was concerned, it was about as effective as a 
boy's pop-gun. And meanwhile it had to be enforced 
by bayonets and men-of-war. Various supplementary 
acts of Congress extended the powers of the president, 
until the Force Act of January, 1809, gave him almost 
the authority of a dictator. 

This extreme measure produced a great revulsion of 
popular feeling. People in New England began to talk of 
secession. The Republican leaders, more sensible than 
the Federalists ten years before, yielded to the storm, 
and, to the great discontent of Jefferson, the Embargo 
was repealed, the repeal to take effect March 4, 1809. 

Meanwhile the secretary of state, Madison, had been 
elected president. 

Jefferson retired to Monticello. His great popularity 
had vanished. The brilliant success of his first term was 
totally eclipsed by the disastrous failure of his pet meas- 
ure, the Embargo. 

In a time of profound peace, Jefferson would have been a 
president of unbounded success. But it was chimerical to 
suppose that force could yet be discarded in international 
relations. His systematic penuriousness to the army 
and navy made it possible for France and England to in- 
sult us with impunity. His scheme of commercial re- 
prisals was hopelessly futile. 

Jefferson's diplomacy scores one brilliant success — the 
acquisition of Louisiana — and that was an accident. The 
rest was a series of mortifying failures. To him more than 
to any one else we owe the disasters of the War of 181 2. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE NATIONAL REPUBLICANS AND THEIR WAR WITH 
ENGLAND. 

References. — Schouler; McMaster; Henry Adams; States- 
men Series : Madison, Clay, John Quincy Adams. 

The foreign relations of the United States were now 
in a most perplexing shape. Each belligerent had 
heaped insult and outrage on the Americans, and there 
was ample cause for war with both France and England. 
Commercial reprisal had failed, at least in the form of a 
universal embargo. And nobody knew just what ought 
to come next. 

An additional difficulty was a lack of leaders in whom 
the people placed confidence. Jefferson had with- 
drawn, and besides he was discredited in the public 
mind. No president has ever had more absolute 
authority with Congress than the philosopher of Monti- 
cello in 1801. And no president has ever had less in- 
fluence with the legislature than the author of the 
Embargo in 1809. The new president, Madison, was 
slow, hesitating, irresolute. The government for a 
couple of years merely drifted, without a definite policy. 

When the Embargo was repealed, an act took its 
place prescribing non-intercourse with both France and 
England, with the promise of relaxation in favor of either 
belligerent who might cease from the policy of spoliation. 
In the following year (1810) this was replaced by an act 
merely agreeing that in case of a withdrawal of the 



Foreign 
relations in a 
tangle. 



Lack of 
leaders. 



Non-inter- 
course with 
France and 
England. 



172 



The Growth of the American A^ation. 



Napoleon pro- 
fesses to with- 
draw his 
decrees. 



The Young 
Republicans. 



offensive measures by either nation non-intercourse 
would be revived as against the other. Accordingly 
Napoleon professed to rescind his decrees. But Great 
Britain insisted that this was not done in good faith, and 
so declined to withdraw the Orders in Council. There- 
fore non-intercourse with that power was again adopted 
by the United States. 

But a new generation was coming on the scene. Young 




men, brought up, to be sure, in the tenets of Jefifersonian 
republicanism, yet filled with the fire of youth, and free 
from the prejudices and animosities of the early political 
strife, were pressing to the front. The outrageous acts 
of Great Britain and the impotence alike of diplomatic 
remonstrance and of ' ' peaceable coercion ' ' had caused 
a turmoil of indignation and disgust. Among the 
Young Republicans Jefierson's peace policy found little 
sympathy. 

The Twelfth Congress, which met in December, 1811, 



The N'ational Republicans. 



73 



What it meant. 



was full of this new blood. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, xhe new 
Calhoun, of South Carolina, Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, ^""sress. 
Cheves and Lowndes, of South Carolina, were among 
the foremost. Clay was chosen speaker by a vote of 
seventy-five to thirty-eight for a peace candidate. The 
Republicans who favored a vigorous national policy 
henceforth had a leader. 

This change in the composition of Congress meant 
much more than merely the appearance of a new set of 
politicians. It meant that the people were wearied of 
what seemed a timorous and feeble administration of 
foreign affairs. And 
it meant also that 
the new western 
states, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Ohio, 
had come to have 
decisive weight in 
the Union. The 
population of the 
republic was nearly 
twice what it had 
been in 1789. It 
was stil^ growing 
rapidly, and the 
center of population 
was steadily moving 
toward the West. 

The new Con- 
gress wasted 
time, but at 




Isaac Chauncey. 
Born, 1772; died, 1S40. Entered navy as lieu- 
tenant, 1798; served in war with Tripoli; 
given command on the lakes, 1812; fitted out 
a squadron on Lake Ontario; aided land 
forces in capture of York (Toronto), and de- 
feated British squadron, 1813. 



no 
once 

took measures looking toward war. Provision was made 
for increasing the army, for strengthening the navy, for 
providing revenue. In the navy bills only was there 



Preparation for 
war. 



174 '^^^^ Groivth of the American Nation. 



Madison's war 
message, June 
I, 1812. 



The decla- 
ration, June r8. 



Grounds of 
opposition. 



lack of energy. The Republicans had been trained to 
distrust that branch of the service, and felt hopeless of 
success on the ocean against the overwhelming power of 
Great Britain. Clay and his friends had their eye on 
Canada. 

In the spring of 18 12 an embargo was laid for ninety 
days. And before that time expired, President Madi- 
son sent to Congress his message detailing the grievances 
of the United States and advising war. A bill to that 
effect was at once introduced, and passed the House in 
twenty-four hours. The Senate debated it nearly two 
weeks. But it became a law on the i8th of June. 

The opposition in Congress was made by the Feder- , 
alists, of whom there were only six in the Senate and 
thirty-seven in the House, and by the dyed-in-the-wool 
Jeffersonian Republicans. The vote in the Lower House 
was seventy-nine to forty-nine, in the Senate nineteen to 
thirteen. All the states east of Pennsylvania were 
opposed to the declaration. That state and all west and 
south favored war. 

The grounds of opposition were various. First was 
the lack of preparation. We were "rushing," it was 
said, ' ' headlong into difficulties, with little calculation of 
the means and little concern for the consequences." 
Then, too, it was held that France and England were 
equally at fault, and, the high Federalists added, Eng- 
land was in the right in her wars and ought to be sus- 
tained, not attacked. Indeed, the sycophancy of the 
Federalists to England through all this matter was nau- 
seating, and was what finally destroyed that party. The 
eastern men asserted, also, that the Republican Embargo 
and Non-Intercourse had already nearly ruined com- 
merce, and that war would put an end to it. Finally, it 
was declared that there really was less ground for war 



The National Republicans. 



175 



than there had been in 1807 — which perhaps was quite 
true. 

While there could be no doubt that the country was 
in no proper position to carry on war, owing to the sys- 
tematic unfriendliness of the Republican administrations 
to the army and navy, still the leaders of the war party 
were not without definite plans. Napoleon was now at 
the height of his power. It seemed likely that he would 
win in his long struggle with England, and, at all events, 
he would be sure to divert the main attention of the 
enemy from America. In the meantime it would be an 
easy matter, Clay thought, to overrun Canada, and to 
hold it either as a permanent conquest or as security for 
an honorable peace. 

The lack of preparation was the most serious fact. Not 
only was the army poorly organized and the navy weak, 
but the harbors were not sufficiently fortified, and the 
financial system in confusion. The charter of the Bank 
of the United States had expired in 181 1, and the Re- 
publicans, in accordance with their traditional policy, had 
refused to renew it. And thus the national treasury had 
no financial agency at the very time it was most needed. 

War was declared, as has been said, on the i8th of 
June. And on the 23d the Orders in Council were re- 
voked. But it was too late. 

The plan for the conquest of Canada proved a failure. 
The first invasion was from Detroit. General Hull, of 
Michigan Territory, a revolutionary veteran and a very 
estimable gentleman, crossed into Canada with a respect- 
able force and attacked the enemy with a formidable 
proclamation. But as he did not follow this up by vigor- 
ous military movements, he found his communications 
threatened by his more active opponent, and so retired 
precipitately to Detroit. Here he was promptly followed 



Plans of the 
war party. 



Lack of prepa- 
ration. 



Revocation of 
the Orders in 
Council. 



The invasion 
of Canada. 



Hull's fiasco. 



176 The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



The failure at 
Queeristown. 



by the British and their Indian aUies, and when the 
American general found that actual cannon balls were be- 
ing hurled at his post, he surrendered without firing a 
shot. His excuse was his apprehensions for the safety of 

the women and child- 
ren at the hands of the 
Indians. Thus instead 
of conquering Canada 
the Americans lost 
Michigan.* 

On the Niagara fron- 
tier General Van Rens- 
selaer commanded a 
considerable army, 
largely New York 
militia. These soldiers 
were eager to be led 
against the enemy, and 
r ^ c ^:, > A • „q SO thc general pro- 

died, 1S20. Entered navy in 179S ; o r 

served with distinction in the naval war r^ c^ t^A c.A \ r>, ol-f-Trtr 
with France; made a brilliant record in the ^^cucu lu ctLLdCiv 

y-%'^'cl' 7"^°''; '"h'^I"' p r'h ['•^''l'' Queenstown. But af- 

l lilted Slates, captured the British frigate ^ 

^/«.-^rfo«/a;^- in 1814, in the frigate />;-«;- ^^^ ^^g advance had 

aeiit, was captured by four British frigates, 

after a desperate resistance; in 1S15, com- rrosscd and WaS closelv 

manded a squadron which compelled Al- J 

giers Tunis and Tripoli to come to terms, engaged, the militia 

He fell in a duel with Commodore Barron, o t> ' 

'S20. concluded that it would 

be illegal to send them over the frontier and so refused 
to march. The detachment already on the Canadian 
side made a gallant defense, but was finally overpowered 
and obliged to surrender. General Van Rensselaer re- 
signed in disgust. 

General Smyth, at Buffalo, succeeded to the command 
on the Niagara, and his words were valiant enough. 




Born, 1779 



* General Hull was tried by court-martial two years later, and dismissed 
from the service. The old general was neither a traitor nor a coward, how- 
ever. He merely was not made of sufficiently stern stuff for his position. 



The National Republicans. 



177 



"Come on, my heroes," was his exhortation, "and 
when you attack the enemy's batteries, let your rallying 
word be, ' The cannon lost at Detroit, or death.' " But 
they got neither. After a i&w feeble attempts to land on 
the Canadian side, the attack was abandoned and the 
volunteers dismissed to their homes. General Smyth 
also was cashiered. He afterwards petitioned Congress 
to be reinstated, praying for the privilege of ' ' dying for 
his country." But Congress thought it inexpedient. 

There was also a series of campaigns on the line of 
Lake Champlain — all more or less 
mismanaged, and all failures. The 
main trouble at the outset was a 
lack of suitable commanders. The 
generals were mostly politicians, 
the " invincibles of peace," who 
proved sorry substitutes for trained 
soldiers. 

As the war went on a better 
military organization was effected 
and good officers were found. 
Michigan was recovered and the 
British army of the West totally 
defeated by General William Henry 
Harrison. Scott, Brown, and Rip- 
ley retrieved the defeat at Queens- 
town, although they were able to 
make no extensive conquests. 

Along the Atlantic coast the British directed a series 
of paltry raids. The city of Washington was taken and 
the public buildings burned, by an act of wanton vandal- 
ism. But a few days after, a similar attack on Baltimore 
was beaten off. All this amounted to nothing. But 
later a strong expedition was directed against Louisiana, 



The failure at 
Buffalo. 



Failures in the 
North. 




The Americans 
begin to learn 
war. 



Oliver Hazard Perry. 
Born, 1785; died, 1S19. En- 
tered navy, 1799 ; served in 
the war with Tripoli ; ap- 
pointed to command on 
Lake Erie, 1813 ; built a 
squadron, and destroyed 
the British squadron in the 
battle of September, 1S13. 



The British take 
Washington, 
but are repulsed 
at Baltimore, 

1814. 



178 



The Gro'd'th of the American Akition. 



Jackson's vic- 
tory at New 
Orleans, Jan. 8, 
1815. 



Military oper- 
ations a failure. 



British 

invasions 

repulsed. 



Naval victories. 



General Andrew Jackson, who had already distinguished 
himself by a successful campaign against the hostile 
Alabama Indians, fortified New Orleans, and when the 
British troops marched against his intrenchments he re- 
pulsed them with great slaughter. This was the last 
battle of the war, and comforted the Americans for the 
ill success of their arms elsewhere. 

The plain truth is that on land the war was a failure. 
The military object was the conquest of Canada. But 
the successi\'e attempts at invasion were so haphazard 
and feeble that success Mas out of the question. The 
only rational plan would have been to concentrate all the 
possible troops on the northern frontier and hurl them 
straight at Montreal and Quebec. There was the key to 
the situation. Canada West would have been helpless if 
cut off from the sea. But unfortunately there was no 
brain at the head of military affairs, and so our force 
was frittered away in a series of idle frays all along the 
line. 

On the other hand, the British failed to penetrate our 
territory. The only serious attempts at invasion were at 
Plattsburgh and New Orleans. The fate of the latter 
has been mentioned. On Lake Champlain tlie British 
flotilla was destroyed in a desperate naval tight, and the 
invading army at once retreated. 

In fact, it was on the water that the American victories 
were most brilliant. The despised little navy amazed 
everybody by winning a series of gallant battles. Only 
two months after the declaration of war Captain Hull in 
the Constitution met and captured the British frigate 
Gucrricre, Captain Dacres. The latter ship had made 
herself especially obnoxious by impressing seamen, and 
had sailed up and down our coast with her name painted 
on her mainsail, as a defiance to the American navy. In 



The National Republicans. 



179 



a coui)lc ot licnirs the Gucrricrc lay a wreck under Hull's t\\q Cnem 
guns. 

In a speech in the House of Commons a member had 
remarked, ' ' There are few Americans with whom one 
would desire a close acquaintance" — a very significant 
bit of British arrogance. Doubtless Captain Dacres 
would have echoed the sentiment. 

This initial victory in a duel of single vessels was fol- 
lowed by others. In 1S13 the American squadron on champiain. 




Capture ok the "Guerriere " bv the "Constitution. 



Lake Erie, under Commodore Perry, desti"oyed that uf 
the enemy, and thus enabled General Harrison to over- 
throw the army of the British. And in the following 
year the naval victory on Lake Champlain effectually 
checked the invasion of New York. 

This series of brilliant naval successes filled the United Delight of 
States with enthusiasm and England with disgust. Of 
course the latter nation cared nothintr for the loss of a 



i8o The Growth of the American Nation. 



Capture of the 
Chesapeake. 



The blockade. 



The peace 
party. 



few frigates. She had nearly a thousand ships in her 
navy, and built dozens every year. But those fights 
broke the spell of British invincibility on the seas. 

The unlucky American frigate Chesapeake was cap- 
tured by the British frigate Shannon, and after that there 
were no more duels between single ships. By order of 

the admiralty British 
frigates on the Amer- 
ican coast thereafter 
went in pairs. 

Meanwhile Ameri- 
can privateers in- 
fested every sea and 
captured hundreds of 
British merchantmen. 
These were small, 
swift-sailing vessels, 
many of them built at 
Baltimore, and were 
usually able to escape 
from the heavy men- 
of-war. But as the 
war went on and the 
British navy was re- 
leased by the over- 
throw of France, the 
American coast was 
closely blockaded. Commerce, of course, was de- 
stroyed, and at last very few cruisers could get to sea. 

The peace party, which had opposed the declaration 
of war, continued its opposition at every step. Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut refused to call out their militia 
for the national service, and the war loan found few sub- 
scribers in the East. In return the British for a lone 




William Bainbridge. 
Born, 1774; died, 1833. Won a reputation in 
the merchant service ; entered navy, 1798 ; 
served in naval war vvitli France; in 1803 
commanded the frigate Philadelphia, which 
ran on the rocks off Tripoli and was cap- 
tured ; in 1S12, in command of the Consti- 
tution, captured the British frigateya7^(7. 



The National Republicans. 



i8i 



time exempted the coast of New England from blockade. 
When the Federalists carried Vermont the new governor 
recalled the Vermont brigade of militia from garrison 
duty on Lake Champlain. In 1814 the Federalists in- 
sisted that the war was a failure, and urged the accept- 
ance of disgraceful terms of peace. And in December 
of that year a convention of Federalists was held at Hart- 
ford, which held secret sessions and was long believed to 
have plotted for secession. But whatever were its aims 
made little difference, as by that time peace was already 
made. 

In May, 18 14, Napoleon was dethroned, and the long 
European wars came to an end. There was then no 
longer any occasion for dispute. And so commissioners 
of the two nations met at Ghent, in August, and after 
long and weary disputes, at last, on the day before 
Christmas, signed a treaty of peace. In it there was no 
mention of impressment or of the right of search. 

Thus ended the War of 1S12. The United States 
blundered into it and blundered out of it. No nation 
ever more richly deserved attack than did England at 
the hands of the United States. And yet war was be- 
gun almost without preparation, and was waged b\' the 
administration with a happy-go-lucky incompetence that 
was almost sublime. Defeat marked every offensi\'e en- 
terprise of moment, and yet there was enough of gallant 
achievement from Hull's victory over the Gucrricrc 
to Jackson's triumph at New Orleans to show that the 
fighting spirit of the Revolution was not dead. Only 
Jefferson's studied anti-military policy was responsible 
for the confusion and disasters of our campaigns in the 
second war with England. 

Nothing was said in the treaty of Ghent about impress- 
ment or the right of search. It was needless. No mat- 



Peace of Ghetit, 
1S14. 



Character of 
the war. 



Some of its 
results. 



1 82 The Growth of the American Nation. 



New political 
principles. 



End of the Fed- 
eralist party. 



National 
defense. 



ter what wars might break out after 1814, England would 

never again insult American shipping. 

The Federalists always spoke of "Mr. Madison's 

War." It was really Henry Clay's. Madison was 

dragged into it reluctantly, and the war put the party of 

Madison into new 
hands and gave it new 
policies. Jeffersonian 
republicanism died 
with the Embargo in 
1809. The national 
democracy of 18 15 
was, if yovi please, the 
same party. But its 
principles were Ham- 
ilton's of 1798. 

And their thor- 
oughly unpatriotic 
course during the war 
destroyed the Feder- 
alist party. Their last 
electoral vote was cast 

James Madison. ^ Tv/r j* ' 

Born, 1751; died, 1836. Graduated at Princeton, ^^^ MadlSOn S SUC- 

1772; lawyer; member of Continental Con- ppec^,^ Thpv hnd 

gress, 1780 ; member of legislature of Virginia; *-c33ui. x iic_y iitiu. 

withjayand Hamilton wrote the J^^rff-rato/,- x^yc^^jf^A tVipmcpK^f^c 

memberof First Congress; secretary of state, p i >J v c li liiciuscivcs 

1801-8 ; president, 1S09-17. ' captioUS, faCtioUS, 

short-sighted, little less than treasonable. 

The need of maintaining an adequate army and navy 
was thoroughly learned by the war. Never since 181 2 
have we systematically acted on the assumption that 
peace will always last, or that in the last resort there is 
any other means of defending the national honor than 
mere force. The London Times was quite right in say- 
ing of the United States : ' ' Their first war with Eng- 




Summary of Part III. 



183 



land made them independent, their second made them 
formidable. ' ' 

There were other consequences of the long struggle Economic 
for neutral rights which ended in the Embargo and in 
war. The economic conditions of the nation were revo- 
lutionized. And that led to social and political results 
which ha\e modified the course of our history e\'er since. 



SUMMARY OF PART III. 

Government under the new constitution was organ- 
ized in 1789, Washington being chosen president. The 
First Congress enacted a series of momentous measures, 
creating the executive departments, levying a tariff and 
an excise, funding the public debt, establishing the 
Bank of the United States, and providing for a mint. 
The effect of this definite organization of the republic 
was to establish social order and to give a great stimulus 
to business prosperity. At the same time differences of 
opinion as to measures and as to the interpretation of 
the constitution led to the beginning of our political 
party divisions. 

At the same time with the organization of our new 
government the French Revolution began its course. 
This soon resulted in war between France and other 
European powers, and presently the United States was 
about the only neutral nation. American commerce 
had increased rapidly after the constitution went into 
effect, and the European wars stimulated it further. 
But, on the other hand, there was trouble with both 
belligerents. France expected aid from America, under 
the treaty of 1778. And England seized every pretext 



Organization 
of government. 



Tlie wars of the 
French Revo- 
lution. 



184 The Grozuth of tlie American Nation. 



Aggressions on 
American com- 
merce. 



The Jay treaty, 
1795- 



Trouble with 
France. 



Success of Jef- 
ferson's first 
term. 

Failure of the 
second. 



to capture American merchant vessels. A large number 
of the American people sympathized with France. But 
Washington held firmly to the ground of strict neu- 
trality. And in 1795 he negotiated a treaty with Eng- 
land which prevented war. Meanwhile Adams had 
become president. The French were greatly irritated 
at the Jay treaty, and refused to receive the new 
American minister. Then, when Adams sent special 
commissioners in his place, Talleyrand intimated that a 
bribe would be necessary in order to purchase peace. 
This aroused the utmost indignation in America — an 
indignation stimulated by the fact that the French also 
were lawlessly seizing American vessels — and war prep- 
arations now went on apace. There were several con- 
flicts in the West Indies. When France saw that 
America was in earnest, however, peace was not diffi- 
cult to attain. And in 1800 a convention settled all the 
points in dispute. Thus war was averted with both 
the belligerents, although with difficulty. 

Meanwhile the war fever had made the F"ederalists 
popular. But they took advantage of their success to 
enact obnoxious measures, the Alien and Sedition Acts, 
which destroyed the good- will of the people. The 
Republican party had been organized by Jefferson, and 
was really in closer sympathy with the tendency of the 
age than were the Federalists. In 1800 the election 
was carried by the Republicans, their candidates, Jeffer- 
son and Burr, having an equal number of votes. The 
House of Representatives elected Jefferson. 

Jefferson's first term was highly successful. He re- 
duced taxes, paid a large portion of the public debt, and 
bought Louisiana. But his second term was not so bril- 
liant. The wars between France and England were re- 
newed, and again the United States was the only neutral. 



Summary of Part III. 185 



The aggressions of the belhgerents on American com- 
merce were so exasperating that in 1807 Jefferson in- 
duced Congress to lay an Embargo on all foreign com- The Embargo. 
merce. This failed to produce the eft'ect intended, and 
the act was repealed early in 1S09. Madison became 
Jefferson's successor. 

Failing to secure just treatment from Great Britain, ■vvarofiSi2 
the administration was at last induced to recommend 
war. This was under the influence of Henry Clay and 
the "Young Republicans." Their plan was to conquer 
Canada. In fact, the American military operations re- 
sulted in no marked success. But on the seas and the 
Great Lakes the little American navy won brilliant vic- 
tories. The overthrow of Napoleon in 18 14 led Great 
Britain to desire peace, and so the war came to an end. 



PART IV. 

THE EPOCH OF PEACE AND SOCIAL 
PROGRESS. 



PART IV.-THE EPOCH OF PEACE AND SOCIAL 
PROGRESS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. 

References. — Schouler ; Andrews ; Bolles : Financial His- 
tory of the United States ; Bishop : History of American Man- 
ufactures ; Taussig : Tariff History. 

The decade which followed the War of 1812 and was 
brought to a close by the election of John Quincy Ad- 
ams to the presidency in 1S25 is commonly called " the 
era of good feeling." In our national politics there was 
then virtually no opposition. The Federalists cast their 
last electoral votes in 18 17, in opposition to James Mon- 
roe. At the next election Monroe would have received 
the unanimous suffrages of the electors, had it not been 
that one in New Hampshire thought that Washington 
ought to have the solitary glory of an unopposed choice, 
and so gave his vote to John Ouincy Adams. 

When the Senate ratified the treaty of Ghent, at once 
the political issues of a quarter century dropped com- 
jDletely out of sight. There was nothing left. There 
was no longer an English party or a French part}'. The 
French Revolution seemed ended, and the Bourbons 
again reigned, while the long series of English insults 
and outrages, culminating in the sack of Washington, 
had chilled the Anglomania of all but the most high-flying 
Federalists. Orders in Council, the continental system, 
paper blockades, the impressment of seamen, all were 
relegated to the past. Embargo and Non- Intercourse Acts 

1S9 



Political 
harmony. 



Disappearance 
of old issues. 



IQO The Growth of the AmericaJi Nation. 



Nationalization 
of the Republi- 
can party. 



New political 
questions. 



belonged to a remote antiquity. The neutral trade itself, 
which had first enriched our merchants, and had then 
proved a very Pandora's box to the nation, was gone. All 
«the world was neutral, for there were no belligerents. 

On the other hand, anti-national sentiment, the ani- 
mus of the resolutions of 1798 and of the Hartford Con- 
vention, seemed extinct. It was the party of Jefferson 
and Madison which fired the national heart in 181 2. It 
was the party of strict construction which had bought 
Louisiana and had enforced the Embargo at the point of 
the bayonet. It was the party that dreaded armies, 
navies, and wars which had indulged in the luxury of all. 
As Josiah Ouincy wrote, "Why should we oppose the ad- 
ministration when it is already completely Federalized ? ' ' 

And, to cap the climax, the party of the old anti-Ham- 
ilton Republicans was about to reestablish Hamilton's 
bank, and to enact a protective tariff, drawing the argu- 
ments from Hamilton's reports. 

The truth is that the old parties had divided very largely 
on issues which had now become extinct. Meanwhile there 
had been going on quietly a development of society which 
took the place of foreign affairs in the public conscious- 
ness. And on the principles involved in these social and 
economic questions the new political parties were formed. 
When the Monroe period came to an end political differ- 
entiation was already visible. The new questions were 
fairly stated. The leaders were ready. The gentlemen 
of the revolutionary school had gone. With the death 
of Adams and Jefferson, July 4, 1826, it might truly be 
said that ' ' old things had passed away— all things had 
become new." Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, these 
were the giants of the new era. Internal improvements, 
a protective tariff, the national bank, these were the sub- 
ject matter about which the new party violence raged. 



The Era of Good Feeling. 



191 



And soon Whig and Democrat were as fiercely at war as 
had been Federalist and Republican. 

The leaders in the national life during the decade in 
question were of quite varied characteristics. The presi- Monroe. 
dent himself, Monroe, was an excellent example of that 
eminently respectable mediocrity which a long experience 
has now taught us to expect in a president of these 
United States. Honest, laborious, high-minded, some- 
what dull, he was the last of the revolutionar\- politicians 
and soldiers — the last 
of that "Virginia 
dynasty ' ' which for 
thirty-two years out 
of the first thirty-six 
administered the con- 
stitution. As Mad- 
ison's secretary of 
state, he followed 
what now had be- 
come an established 
precedent in succeed- 
ing to the presidency. 

This last consider- 
ation made the as- James Monroe. 

Signment of the first Bom, 175s. ■ died 1831.St.ned in Revolutiou- 
o ary War, reaching; the rank of lieutenant- 




colonel ; member of Congress under the Con- 
federation ; senator from Virginia in the 
First Congress ; was a stanch opponent of the 
Federalists; envoy to France, 1794; governor 
of \'irginia, 1799-1S02 ; one of the commission- 
ers who made the Louisiana purchase ; sec- 
retary of state under Madison ; president of 
the United States, 1S17-25. 



place in Monroe' s 
cabinet a question of 
prime importance. 
The selection of John 
Ouincy Adams prob- 
ably could not have been bettered. He was a ripe 
statesman, with long experience in diplomatic service — a 
scholar, industrious, upright, accomplished. 

But the most popular politician in the Republican 



John Quincy 
Adams. 



192 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Henry Clay. 



Andrew 
Jackson. 



The rise of 
manufactures. 



party was Henry Clay. Speaker of the House of 
Representatives since 181 1, with the exception only of 
the brief interval of his absence at Ghent, he was pre- 
eminently the leader in the new school of Republican 
thought. He had his eye on the presidency. And he 
was not a little dissatisfied that Adams was preferred for 
the department of state. 

General Andrew Jackson was not an aspirant for a 
cabinet place. Even had he expected to be president 
(and he probably did not at that time), precedents 
would not have caused him any anxiety. While in 
18 1 8 he was roaming around in Florida, in his own law- 
less and pugnacious way, capturing Spanish forts, 
hanging British subjects, and otherwise smashing inter- 
national law, as he was wont to smash anything which 
got in the way of his rugged common sense — in all these 
proceedings he was setting out for the White House by 
a new road. It proved a tolerably straight one. 

The Embargo and the war had changed the currents 
of business enterprise. To be sure, manufactures had 
slowly increased since the Revolution. Still, foreign 
commerce afforded the main employment to capital in 
the Eastern and Middle States, and most goods of 
English manufacture were cheaper than those produced 
here. But when the various Non- Intercourse Acts, 
followed by war, cut off the source of supply, from 
sheer necessity our people took to making many articles 
which before they had imported. The home product of 
cotton and woolen goods especially increased very 
greatly. And these new manufactures gave an outlet 
for that capital which had before been employed in 
shipping and commerce. But as soon as the war came 
to an end, a flood of British goods was poured on the 
American market. There had been an enormous over- 



Tariffs. 



The Era of Good Feeling. 193 

production in England. The consumption of war in 
that country had ceased, and the manufacturers eagerly 
took advantage of every new outlet for their goods. 
In many cases these shipments pro\'ed disastrous to 
those who made them, while at the same time sufficing 
to break down the American market. The last con- 
sideration Lord Brougham considered important enough 
to warrant any losses which might result. He said in 

Parliament, ' ' It was well worth while to incur a loss Hansard's De- 
bates, First 
upon the first exportation, in order, by the glut, to Series Voi. 

stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures of the 1099- 
United States which the war had forced into existence, 
contrary to the natural course of things." And the 
American merchants turned to Congress for relief 

The tariff of 1789, while intended primarily for 
revenue, was moderately protective. The average rate 
of ad valoi'evi duties was about five per cent. Succes- 
sive acts in later years raised this average to about 
fifteen per cent. Of course the Embargo and Non- 
Intercourse Acts and the war, from 1808 to 181 5, had 
the efifect of protection for home manufactures. And in 
18 1 2 the import duties were doubled, to obtain revenue 
for the war. The act of 18 16 was intended as a reduc- 
tion of the war tariff, but at the same time the idea of 
protection was for the first time made prominent. The 
bill was planned by Alexander J. Dallas, who had 
succeeded Gallatin as secretary of the treasury.* Oddly 
enough, the protective features of this act were cham- 
pioned by Calhoun, who afterwards became so con- 
spicuous in his opposition to high tariffs. Calhoun 
thought that if cotton factories should be fostered in the 
North it would afford a market for the Carolina staple. 

* After Gallatin retired there were some disastrous experiments made before 
Dallas was appointed. 



194 ^'^'^ Growth of the American Nation. 

And he shared with Jefferson the desire to see us in- 
dustrially independent of Europe. 

The law of 1 8 1 6 made three grades of manufactured 

Thetaiiflof goods. In the first were placed such articles as could be 
supplied by American producers in sufficient quantities 
for the home market. In this class were all manufac- 

Bishop, 11., 222. tures of wool, carriages, cordage, hats, firearms, leather 
and leather goods, paper, and some others. The 
average rate on these goods was thirty-five per cent — 
which was meant to be prohibitory. In the second 
grade were articles with which the domestic manufacturers 
could partly, but not wholly, supply the American 
market. Here were found coarse cottons and woolens, 
plated ware, large iron manufactures, such as shovels, 
products of pewter, tin, copper, and brass, window 
glass, spirits and malt liquors, and others. On these 
the duty was twenty-five per cent — to be reduced in 
three years to twenty per cent. This rate was supposed 
to be competitive. In the third grade were articles 
which were not produced at all, or only to a slight ex- 
tent, in this country. Such were fine cottons, linens, 
silks, many woolens and worsteds, carpets, blankets, 
hosiery, small hardware, cutlery, pins and needles, china, 
glass. On these low rates were levied. The average 
ad valorem duty under this tariff" was twenty-five per 
cent. But the protective features of this act did not 
seem to work. At all events, business grew worse, and 

The panic of _ 

i8i9- in 1 819 there was a great crash. 

To be sure, there were other causes than foreign 

General adverse . . . , r . -t-i ■ i^ 

conditions. Competition with our manuiacturers. 1 he agriculture 

and commerce which had been so prosperous before the 
Embargo did not return after the war to their old con- 
dition. And it would have been strange if they had. 
It was just the fact of the general wars which had 



The Eta of Good Feeling. 195 

created so active a demand for American raw materials 
and for American neutral shipping. But the wars were 
ended, and now each European nation jealously sought 
to restrict its trade so far as possible to its own people. 
Further, the whole civilized world was suffering from 
business depression. The nations had been busy for a 
quarter century in killing people and destroying 
property. And now the effects began to be felt — and 
America could not avoid sharing in them. 

But there were some special reasons in this country. ^^^\\^ finance 
The financial system had been totally disarranged. In 
181 1, the twenty-year charter of the Bank of the United 
States expired. The traditional Republican opposition J/|heUnited'^ 
to Hamilton's ideas sufficed to defeat a new charter, states. 
But this was accomplished by a close vote — by a 
majority of one in the House, and by the casting vote 
of the vice-president in 'the Senate. Gallatin strongly 
favored continuing the bank, but as he had many 
enemies in Congress his influence gave no help. So 
just as the country was plunging into war, its accustomed 
fiscal machinery was destroyed. This fact greatly em- 
barrassed the administration in prosecuting hostilities, 
and had a still worse effect on the condition of business. 
The currency provided by the national bank was with- 
drawn, and its place was taken by the issues of a 
multitude of state banks. The imperative demand for 
military supplies drained off the coin, and the banks 
were obliged to suspend specie payments. In the 
meantime, the flood of paper bank notes became greatly 
depreciated, and business was correspondingly unsettled. 

At this juncture Secretary Dallas advised a new 

The second 

United States Bank, and Congress adopted the sugges- Bank of the 

' *' V r 1 1 J United States. 

tion. It was planned on the general lines of the old 
one, but on a larger scale, the capital being $35,000,000, 



196 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The crash in 

1819. 



The protective 
tariff of 1824. 



The Missouri 
Compromise, 

1820. 



in place of $10,000,000. The government held a fifth 
of the stock, and appointed a fifth of the twenty-five 
directors. The main bank was in Philadelphia, and 
branches were established in the different states. The 
bank was to have all the deposits of the national 
treasury, was to transact exchanges for the government 
without charge, and was to aid in the negotiation of 
loans. The bank paper, issued in notes of not less than 
five dollars, was to be accepted in payments to the 
United States. One great object in establishing the 
bank was to secure the resumption of specie payments. 
This it succeeded in accomplishing early in 181 7. But 
in other respects the institution was mismanaged for the 
first few years, and thus contributed to the disasters of 
1 8 19. In that year there was a general collapse of 
business. All the bad conditions which for years had 
prevailed seemed to culminate. Banks and mercantile 
houses failed, and there was general distress. 

In 1824, Congress was led to believe that the inade- 
quate protection of manufactures was one cause of the 
troubles, and accordingly a new tariff was enacted. The 
average scale of duties was made thirty-three and one 
third per cent. Henry Clay was a prominent advocate 
of this measure, and many of the Young Republicans 
who had been concerned with him in bringing on the 
war, and who afterwards had joined in establishing the 
bank, were also in favor of the protective tariff". 

Two other striking features of the decade from 1815 
to 1825 were the Missouri Compromise and the promul- 
gation of the Monroe Doctrine. 

The Missouri Compromise belongs logically with the 
discussion of the question of African slavery as a social 
and political force, and its details will be left until we 
take up that subject. It is sufficient to say here that 



The Monroe 



The Era of Good Feelmg. 197 

free state men opposed the admission of Missouri to the 
Union as a slave state, and that its admission was only- 
secured by the agreement that slavery should not be per- 
mitted in any other portion of the territory bought of 
France which should lie north of 36° 30' (the parallel 
bounding Missouri on the south). The dispute over this 
question was a violent one, and led to ominous threats of 
a dissolution of the Union. 

The Monroe Doctrine has become the settled policy 
of the United States. But it was by no means devised Doctrine, 
by the worthy president whose name it bears. After the 
Revolutionary War there was a general feeling that the 
old European colonial system ought no longer to con- 
tinue, but that America should belong to Americans — 
and that, on the other hand, it was bad policy for America 
to become entangled in European affairs. This view 
was urged with great force by Washington in his fare- 
well address, by Jefferson in his inaugural, and on many 
other occasions. 

In 181 2 the American colonies of Spain took advan- 

^ _ Spanish- 

tage of the confusion in European affairs to throw off American 
their allegiance to the home country and sooner or later 
to declare their independence. And they made their 
declaration good in a series of successful campaigns. 

But after the fall of Napoleon, the powers of Europe 
bound themselves together in order to crush any future 
attempts at revolution. Accordingly Austria sent troops 
into Naples to quell insurrection, and in 1823 a French 
army invaded Spain and overturned the constitution 
which the Liberals of that country had forced on their 
treacherous and tyrannical king. 

The allies then considered the question of recovering pj-opoged 
the Spanish colonies. France was again willing to send ,^jte7vention 
an expedition, naval and military, of course expecting a 



198 



The Growth of the Americaji Nation. 



Monroe's 
message, 1823. 



The essential 
l)oints. 



reasonable compensation, probably in American territory. 
England was opposed to this, and in the summer of 1823 
Canning, the foreign secretary, proposed to the Ameri- 
can minister, Rush, a joint declaration deprecating in- 
tervention. Rush assented to this, on condition that 
England should recognize the independence of the Span- 
ish-American republics, which the United States had 
already done. This Canning was unwilling to do. 

But the message of President Monroe to Congress, 
December 2, 1823, adverted to the subject. The presi- 
dent made three statements which were very significant. 

He declared that the United States will not look favor- 
ably on the planting of any more European colonies on 
this continent. 

He went on to say : ' ' We owe it, therefore, to candor 
and to the amicable relations existing between the United 
States and those powers, to declare that we should con- 
sider any attempt on their part to extend their system to 
any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace 
and safety." 

And then he added, still more explicitly : " With the 
existing colonies or dependencies of any European power 
we have not interfered and shall not interfere ; but with 
the governments which have declared their independence 
and maintained it, and whose independence we have on 
great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, 
we could not view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner 
their destiny, by any European power, in any other 
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposi- 
tion toward the United States." 

The three points of the Monroe Doctrine, then, are : 
no more European colonies in America, no extension to 
this continent of the European political system, no in- 



The Era of Good Feeling. 



199 



terference with the independence of the American re- 
publics. France heeded the suggestion of the Ameri- 
can president, and dropped the plan of interference. 

It should be observed that the Monroe Doctrine has The doctrine 
never been formulated by act of Congress, but is merely " ^^'^^ 
a tradition of executive policy. It is somewhat indefi- 
nite, but it has answered its purpose thus far. Europe 
understands that the United States will not tolerate such 
a policy with regard to America as the European states 
have followed in Africa and Asia and Oceanica. 




1 JYo. 






'J 




' UNITED STATES 

IN 1820. 

. ■] 

,,y^j (James Monroe's Administration) 
r/ rm^ Stales 

ESS Terriloriaa 

UmiSpiiouh Poss. 

F?^ English Poss. 



CHAPTER XV. 



The election of 

1824. 



How Clay was 
beaten. 



THE NATIONAL REPUBLICANS. 

References. — Schouler ; Andrews ; Hammond : Political 
History of New York ; Clay, Jacksofi, andy. Q. Adams, in the 
Statesmen Series ; Fij'st Century of the Republic. 

The presidential election of 1824 is known as the 
"scrub race." All the candidates were Republicans, as 
the Federalist party had now become a mere remi- 
niscence. The machinery of a national nominating 
convention had not yet been invented, and the old 
method of nominating by a congressional caucus had 
fallen into disfavor. So it came about that no less than 
four Republican candidates appeared before the people. 
Two of these were in Monroe's cabinet — Adams, the 
secretary of state, and Crawford, of Georgia, secretary 
of the treasury. Clay was speaker. The fourth was 
General Andrew Jackson, who was now in retirement. 
The contest was wholly personal. And naturally none 
of the four had a majority of electoral votes. Jackson 
had ninety-nine, Adams eighty-four, Crawford forty- 
one, and Clay thirty-seven. Thus for a second time the 
choice of a president went to the House of Representa- 
tives. But by the twelfth amendment to the constitu- 
tion, made after the bitterly contested election of 1801, 
the House, voting by states, was required to choose 
from the highest three on the list. And so Clay was 
excluded. 

The fact that Crawford had four more votes than 
Clay resulted from a bit of double dealing in New York. 



The National Republicans. 



20I 



The electors in that state were chosen by the legislature. 
The friends of Adams and Clay combined, with the 
agreement to divide the electors between their candi- 
dates, Adams receiving the greater number But when 
it came to a ballot 
several blank votes 
were cast, and thus 
only thirty-two elec- 
tors were chosen. On 
a second ballot four 
Crawford men were 
elected. Had the 
combination held to- 
gether these votes 
would have been lost 
to Crawford, several 
or all of them going 
to Clay. In that 
event Clay, instead of 
Crawford, would have 
come before the 

Hrn i- JOHN yL 

ouseofRepresenta- ^^^^ ^^g^. ^^^^^ ^, 




Hammond, II. 

177. 



John Quincy Adams. 

Son of John Adams ; 



minister to Holland, 1794; minister to Portu- 
gal, 1796; minister to Prussia, 1797; U. S. sena- 
tor from Massachusetts, 1S03 ; resigned, 180S; 
minister to Russia, 1809 ; one of the commis- 
sioners at Ghent, 1814; minister to England, 
1S15; secretary of state, 1S17-25 ; president 
of the United States, 1825-9; member of Con- 
gress from Massachusetts, 1831-48. 



tives, and that body 
it is known would 
promptly have chosen 
him president. 

As it was, in the 
House the friends of Clay and Adams combined to elect Election of 
the latter. Adams had thirteen states, Jackson had 
seven, and Crawford four. And Adams appointed Clay 
secretary of state. 

At once the air was full of accusations. It was a jhe alleged 
' ' corrupt bargain. ' ' Adams and Clay had dickered for J^^^gaiT' 
the presidency, it was said. There was no evidence of 



202 The Growth of the America7i Nation. 



this except the circumstances. As the Tennessee legis- 
lature expressed it : ' 'Adams went into the combination 
wanting the presidency. He came out of it president. 
Clay went into the combination wanting to be secretary 
of state. He came out of it with the secretaryship. 
No more proof was needed. ' ' And it might be added 
that no more proof was ever found. But from the 
nature of the case the charge was one which could not 
be disproved. And the opposition at once saw that 
with this weapon they could destroy Adams. And they 
did. 

Character Than Joliu Quiucy Adams we have never had a presi- 

dent better equipped in knowledge and experience. 
Conscientious, hard-working, able, it was his ambition 
to signalize his administration by great achievements for 
the public good. The country had recovered from the 
depression of 1819 and was generally prosperous. The 
West was rapidly filling up with an industrious popula- 
tion. Manufactures and commerce were expanding. 
The farmers found a ready market at good prices. 

His policy. To aid this development and to secure permanence of 

prosperity the president thought was a function of sound 
statesmanship. The vast public lands of the new states 
and of the unsettled territories, he thought should be 
sold at once and that the funds thus provided should be 
used for works of public utility. He wanted great 
roads, canals, and bridges. He would improve harbors 
and navigation. He favored suitable fortifications on 
the coast, an adequate army, a strong navy. He pro- 
posed a national university and a naval school. All 
these things, and many more which would forward civili- 
zation and open the continent to its advance, he longed 
to see realized, and so urged them on Congress. 

But this administration, so able in personnel and so 



The National Republicans. 203 

brilliant in conception, was doomed to be one of the Factious oppo- 
most barren in our annals. And the fatal force which ^'"°"" 
paralyzed all action was the factious opposition which 
was determined to secure the presidency for Jackson in 
1828 at all hazards. To do that, the administration 
must be made unpopular. It must not be allowed to do 
anything to win the attention and affection of the nation. 
Therefore, whatever the administration suggested was at 
once opposed and if possible thwarted without regard to 
its merits, and the Jackson men and Crawford men com- 
bined succeeded in controlling Congress. 

The ideas of President Adams were quite in accord Adams and the 
with those of the ' ' Young Republicans, ' ' who had come Jiv^ans"^ Repub- 
on the stage since 1 8 1 1 . They had the same thoroughly 
national views which had animated the Federalists of 
Hamilton's day. And, while, of course, they had no 
thought of forming a new party, they delighted to call 
themselves ' ' National Republicans. ' ' 

One of their favorite plans related to internal improve- 
ments. The rapid development of the new country p"ovements 
made very evident the great need of better means of 
communication. There was land almost without limit. 
But of what use was it if its products could only reach 
a market at so much cost of time and money that they 
could not be sold at a profit ? In fact, the American 
people were beginning to struggle with one of the great 
problems of our age — how to bring the farm near to the 
city. Distance, speaking economically, is not measured 
in miles, but in time, money, and effort. If it costs no ^^'"*^ of good 

' ' / ' means ot 

more and is just as easy to carry a load to market by transport. 
rail a hundred miles, as to haul an equal load there in a 
wagon ten miles, then for all practical purposes the two 
places are at an equal distance from market. 

All this was understood by Jefferson, and he thought 



204 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Jefferson's 
views. 



The Cumber- 
land Road. 



See Harper' s 
Magazine for 
November, 
1879, "The Old 
National Pike." 

1838. 



that trunk lines of road ought to be constructed by the 
nation. His plan was from the customs revenue first of 
all to pay off the national debt. Then he would devote 
the surplus to roads and canals, and to making provision 
for general education. Now this was precisely the thought 
of Adams and Clay and their National Republican friends. 
But the difference was in regard to constitutional pow- 
ers. Jefferson, true to his theory of strict construction, 
held that the general government could have no power 
to use money for the purposes in question without a con- 
stitutional amendment. Clay and Adams believed in 
Hamilton's doctrine of implied powers, and so thought 
an amendment quite unnecessary. Jefferson's eager de- 
sire for such public works was one reason for his dread 
of war, and the outbreak of hostilities in 181 2 accord- 
ingly was a great disappointment to him. 

The first great national undertaking in the way of in- 
ternal improvements was the Cumberland Road. This 
was projected in 1806, and was to run from Maryland to 
the Ohio River, thence to the Mississippi, and thence, 
perhaps, to the Pacific. It was built as far as Wheeling, 
on the Ohio, was well constructed of stone and gravel, 
and was afterwards extended to the Indiana line. This 
was to be but the east and west artery of a great system. 
Another was to run from Washington to New Orleans, 
and then there was to be a network of branches. 

This great plan was only in line with what had been 
done in Europe. The latter half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury A\as marked by a great revolution in road-making. 
The rude tracks and horrible quagmires of a previous 
age were replaced by the smooth and hard highways 
constructed by the genius of the Macadams and the 
Telfords, and the result was a great saving in time and 
comfort, and, of course, in the cost of transportation. 



The National Republicans. 



205 



The system 
checked. 



The National 

RepubUcan 

idea. 



And it was proposed to duplicate this reform in America. 

But the troubles with England piled up debt and 
stopped the execution of many of these plans. After 
the peace the subject again engaged the attention of 
Congress, but did not make much headway. National 
aid for the Erie Canal was refused, and so that great 
work was carried out by the state of New York. A bill 
making further appropriations for the Cumberland Road 
Monroe vetoed, on the constitutional ground. And the 
amendment desired by Jefferson was never made. 

But the National Republicans warmly defended the 
plans for national highways and canals, and ' ' internal 
improvements" were a burning issue in politics for a 
number of years, only vanishing when the new and sur- 
prising application of steam to the traction of wheeled 
carriages on iron rails had finally relegated turnpikes and 
canals to insignificance. 

The conception of Clay and Adams was a brilliant one. 

* . ... . How It has 

They were entirely sound in thinking that both national come to be 
sentiment and material prosperity demanded rapid and 
cheap transit from one end of the Union to the other. 
This conception has been realized in our own day. The 
Union is bound together by bands of steel and iron. 
The railroad and the telegraph have wrought what Jeffer- 
son hoped to accomplish by the turnpike. 

Nothing was more marked in the decades which im- 
mediately followed the War of 18 12 than the emigration 
which set in toward the West. The wilderness beyond 
the AUeghenies was cleared and settled with marvelous 
rapidity, and state after state was added to the Union. 
In turn this striking feature of our national life produced 
important effects on public policies. The balance of 
power, with the center of population, began to leave 
the Atlantic coast. 



realized. 



Settlement of 
the West. 



2o6 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Effect of the 
war. 



Economic revo- 
lution. 



The routes of 
emigration. 



Slow methods. 



To be sure, this movement had begun long before. 
Kentucky and Tennessee became states before the eigh- 
teenth century was ended, and Ohio when the nine- 
teenth was just begun. And the Mississippi Valley was 
felt in 1812 among the Young Republicans who forced 
on the war with Great Britain. The census of 1800 
showed only 45,000 people in Ohio, 5,000 in Indiana 
Territory, and 8,000 in Mississippi. But these were 
multiplied sixfold in 18 10. 

The war in various ways set the current of migra- 
tion in motion. The army of Harrison marched over 
the rich prairies of Indiana, and when disbanded at 
the peace the soldiers cast longing eyes toward their 
battle-grounds. 

Then, too, the Embargo and the war had ruined 
foreign commerce, and with the general peace the 
neutral trade lost its monopoly. And thus agriculture 
in the East was shorn of a great share of its profits. 
For these reasons many merchants devoted their capital 
to manufacturing, and many farmers turned to the richer 
soil of the West. So an increasing stream of emigrant 
wagons poured over the mountain passes, and the for- 
ests of Ohio and the prairies of Indiana and Illinois 
yielded to the axe and plow of the settler.* 

There were three general lines of travel — over the 
mountains through western Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, 
and then by boats down the Ohio, through western 
New York to Buffalo and thence by Lake Erie, and 
south flanking the mountain range and penetrating Ala- 
bama and Mississippi. 

In the early years of the century travel was slow. 
The pioneer wagons were heavy, the roads were dread- 

* For a more detailed account of this settlement, its methods, sources, and 
results, see my chapter on " The Mississippi Valley," Chapter V., in Shaler's 
" United States of America." 



The N^ational Republicans. 



207 



ful. Reaching Pittsburg-, the emigrants embarked in a 
flatboat which floated down with the current, or in a 
keelboat which could be poled up some affluent of the 
great river. The farmers along all these streams sent 
their produce to market in these primitive boats and in 
turn received such merchandise as they needed from 
those which came up from New Orleans and Louisville. 
In this way four months were consumed from New 
Orleans to St. Louis. Tlie inevitable effect was that 
the farmer paid high 
prices for all articles 
which he bought, 
while in turn his 
produce brought 
him very little. 

But in 181 1 Ful- 
ton put a steamboat 
on the Ohio at 
Pittsburg, and the 
results were mar- 
velous. By 1815 
the time from New 
Orleans to St. Louis 
was twenty-five 
days, and in 1823 it 
was twelve days. 

People were 
greatly excited by 
these passages. 
"The Monongahela 
and Ohio Steamboat 
Company claimed 
patronage because their new crack boats could go nine 
miles an hour." But that speed was for a long time 




Robert Fulton. 
Born, 1765; died, 1815. An inventor. Built the 
Cleymont, and propelled it by a steam-engine 
from New York to Albany, in tliirty-two hours, 
1807. Planned a steam war vessel, which was 
launched in 1814. 



Steamboats. 



" First Century 
of the Repub- 
lic," 181. 



2o8 The Groivth of the American A^ation. 



The Erie 
Canal. 



Schouler, III. 

346-7- 



thought dangerous. Freight rates were rapidly re- 
duced, and prices of commocHties consumed by the 
settlers fell in proportion. At the same time they were, 
of course, brought into closer and cheaper communica- 
tion with their market. 

These facts, with the added speed and convenience of 
travel, enormously stimulated immigration, and the 
development of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys went 
on apace. Population rolled up rapidly. Ohio, for 
instance, had 45,000 people in 1800, 230,000 in 1810, 
581,000 in 1820, 937,000 in 1830. New states were 
formed and admitted year after year. Louisiana came 
in in 181 2, followed by Indiana in 18 16, Mississippi in 
1817, Illinois in 1818, Alabama in 1819, Maine (before 
that merely a district of Massachusetts) in 1820, Mis- 
souri in 1 82 1. 

This great development of the New West naturally 
stimulated still greater improvement in transportation. 
The rising manufactures in the East sought a market in 
the West, and the excitement over steam and its 
opening possibilities greatly intensified the eager interest 
in finding new outlets. One of the first and greatest of 
these was the Erie Canal, connecting tide water at 
Albany with the Great Lakes at Buffalo. The first earth 
was turned by Governor DeWitt Clinton, who was to the 
end the earnest and powerful patron of the undertaking, 
on July 4, 1817, and the canal was completed in 
October, 1825. It may be noted that the peculiar 
exigencies of New York politics had again made Clinton 
governor in the latter year, so that he most appro- 
priately presided over the festivities which celebrated 
the occasion — with his own hands pouring into the 
ocean casks of water which had been brought in a boat 
from Lake Erie. 



The National Rcpiiblicans. 209 

The success of the canal was instantaneous. Within Brilliant suc- 
ten years the tolls had paid the cost of construction. At 
once the land of western New York and that on the 
shores of the Great Lakes were in reach of a market. 
Before the canal was built the expense of transportation 
from Buffalo to New York was $100 per ton and the 
time was twenty days. Freight rates immediately 
dropped to $14 a ton and the trip was made in a third 
of the time. The tide of travel at once poured through 
the canal. In 18 19 the first steamer was put on Lake 
Erie. After 1S25 the number was greatly increased. 
And now northern Ohio, Michigan, and northern Indi- 
ana and Illinois, began to fill with people. 

The life of these settlers was rough ; they endured com. 
many hardships, and yet they enjoyed a rude plenty. 
The uni\'ersal crop _ - v ..... 

was Indian corn ; " 

the universal do- ^ 

mestic animal wa'^ 

the swine. And 

hog and homin\ 

were the staph 

diet of the South- ^ _ 

west, as were corn- ,,l.^y,u_ i'JW" -^^'■- — ^^^— ' 

meal mush and salt 

, . 1 TVT 1 Si iiLEK s Log Cabin. 

pork m the North 

west. To be sure, the Ohio pioneers raised wheat, and 
the Kentuckians made crops of cotton and tobacco. 
But after all Indian corn in some shape was universally 
consumed. Whether it was corn ground into meal, or 
corn animated, walking around in the shape of swine, or 
pickled and smoked, as side pork and bacon, or corn 
liquid, distilled into whisky, all was corn, and all formed 
the western staple of subsistence. 




of I 



2IO The Growth of the American Nation. 

All this is indicative of a rude and hard existence. 
The whole West was a democracy, somewhat rough, 
but instinct with life and energy. And it added a 
strong tonic to the political and social thinking of there- 
public. 
The high tariff ^^^ ^^ midst of this eager and vigorous expansion of 
American society the term of President Adams drew to 
a close. The opposition in Congress had succeeded in 
baffling nearly all his ambitions. In the spring of 1828 
a new tariff act became law. This was now highly pro- 
tective — the thirty-three and one third per cent duties of 
1824 reaching forty and forty-five per cent. The fate- 
ful consequences of this tariff will appear when we come 
to examine the nullification question of 1832-33. 

But the well-organized opposition had succeeded in 
breaking down the administration in the popular regard. 
Mr. Adams desired a reelection. But he wanted it as 
an expression of popular approval of his administration, 
and he would not lift a finger to afifect the course of poli- 
tics. He would not remove federal office-holders who 
opposed him. He would make no appointments to aid 
his canvass. Public office he regarded as wholly a pub- 
lic matter, and officers as absolutely entitled to independ- 
ence in political action. He would not make stump 
speeches, regarding it as undignified and improper. 

The opposition had no such scruples. The Jackson 
Jackson. and Crawford men had united in the interest of General 

Jackson, with that astute wire-puller, Van Buren of New 
York, as one of the leading spirits. And so efficient 
a machine was constructed that Mr. Adams was easily 
defeated. He had only eighty-three electoral votes, 
to one hundred seventy-eight for Jackson. South of 
the Potomac and west of the Alleghenies Adams did not 
get one elector. Pennsylvania cast 101,652 votes for 



Election of 



The Actional Republicans. 



Jackson and 50,848 for Adams. Tennessee gave 44,293 
for the old general, and 2,240 for Adams. Parton tells 
of an attempt in a Tennessee village to tar and feather 
two men who voted for Adams. 

Thus one of the best and purest of our presidents was 
relegated to private life, and a choleric Indian fighter 
was put in his place. 




CHAPTER XYI. 



LOCAL LIFE. 



Balance of 
central 
authority and 
local independ- 
ence. 



References. — Fiske : Civil Governnioit in the United States; 
Cooke : Virginia, in the Commonwealth Series ; Howard : 
Local Constitutional History of the United States. 

There is nothing more characteristic of the American 
social organization than the balance everywhere pre- 
served between local independence and general au- 
thority. Were such a device imposed on a nation arti- 
ficially it is hardly likely that it would work. Either ex- 
cess of local autonomy would result in political chaos, or 
the central power would gradually absorb local freedom. 
Again, even if a balanced system is the growth of natural 
conditions, it is quite likely to take a direction which 
tends to destroy the equilibrium, and to result in con- 
fusion or autocracy. In a rough sort of way the feudal 
institutions of Europe in the Middle Ages are somewhat 
analogous to our American federal republic. But in Ger- 
many the tendency to local independence prevailed, and 
the central authority of the Holy Roman Empire be- 
came a shadow, while in France the crown gradually 
succeeded in drawing to itself the authority of the local 
feudal lords, and then of the municipalities, and under 
Louis XIV. despotism became complete. But in our 
century of republican life the oscillations between cen- 
tralization and local freedom have not proved destruc- 
tive of either. It is true that the national authority has 
become vastly more definite and more extensive than was 
the case at the outset. But after all this growth has been 



Local Life. 213 

kept within certain quite clearly defined limits, which it 
does not seem at all likely to pass. And, on the other 
hand, the most powerful disruptive force which could be 
exerted by excess of local energy proved inadequate to 
destroy the Union. And so the equipoise of sun and 
planets in the solar system is perhaps no strained simile 
for this union of states in our federally organized nation. 

The form of life which results from a system like this 
is materially different from what one may find in a nation Fullness ofiocai 
wholly centralized. It has been said that Paris is France. 
But Washington is not a power. It is a mere con- 
venience. From Paris radiate all the innumerable lines of 
authority which control the French social and political 
organism. In the United States a vigorous, independent 
life is going on in nearly half a hundred distinct groups, 
entirely aside from the common life which unites both 
individuals and groups into the nation. A large variet}' 
of social interests is left wholly in the hands of the local 
groups. The family relation, education, the ordinary 
police, the settlement of nearly all business complications, 
public charity — in short, nearly the whole field of ci\'il 
and criminal legislation, with the administrative busi- 
ness and judicial determinations resulting — are left un- 
touched by the national authorities. And so there is en- 
tire freedom to treat these multifarious affairs according 
to the peculiar notions or to the local conditions which 
prevail in different sections of the republic. Uniformity 
throughout the nation is of the essence of centralization. 
But the American idea is that uniformity is absolutely 
non-essential except in such things as of themselves 
necessarily involve the whole people. 

One great result of this wide diffusion of civic life is RegyHj, 
the fact that shock to the social system is much less likely unfolj'^' °^*^^ 
to result in general political paralysis. There may be 



214 T^^^^ Groivth of the Aynerican Nation. 

serious disturbance in one part of the republic without 

of necessity involving other parts. Each state is a sort of 

local safety-valve for the escape of surplus political steam, 

Local contests and even the conquest of any one portion of the states 

an escape-valve. ^ -^ _ _ 

would by no means imply the subjugation of the rest. 
Often in European wars the fall of the national capital 
has been followed quickly by submission to the invader. 
When the British took Washington, in 1814, they ac- 
complished less than if they had succeeded in seizing 
any one of a dozen other towns. Every state in the 
Union is a fully organized center of military as well as of 
civil life. The fact is that the republic has no one heart 
a wound to which is fatal. It has as many hearts as 
there are states, and yet it is the common blood which 
circulates through all. 
The states. The unit of our national organization is the state. 

We began with thirteen, we had twenty-four when An- 
drew Jackson became president, and Utah will make the 
forty-fifth. 

The origin of this local subdivision of the nation goes 
back to the circumstances which led to the formation of 
distinct English colonies on the American coast. While 
substantially of one race, yet the settlers were quite dif- 
ferent in political and religious ideas, and each separate 
colony was from the first under its own auspices. Had 
England colonized America in accordance with a defi- 
nite plan, it is likely that there would have been an 
initial unity which probably would have given a different 
trend to the colonies and hence to the republic. 

An example of the mode in which the people of the 
various states conducted their common concerns is 
afforded by New York. When the Continental Con- 
gress adopted resolutions favoring independence, it at 
the same time recommended the states to provide them- 



Their source. 



New York. 



Local Life. 215 

selves each with a frame of government suited to its 
needs. The revolutionary legislature of New York 
promptly appointed a committee for this purpose, but 
the pressure of the war prevented a report until the 
spring of 1777. At that time the new frame of govern- Constitution of 
ment was adopted, the legislature ratifying the commit- 
tee's report without referring it to the people. This 
constitution was the organic law of the state for nearly 
half a century. It provided a legislature of two houses, 
the upper, the Senate, chosen by the four great districts 
into which the state was divided, the lower, the Assembly, 
chosen by smaller districts. 

The executive was a governor, elected by the people 
for three years. There was provision for a series of The executive, 
courts of law, with a supreme court at the head, and 
for a chancellor, as a court of equity. These were to 
hold for the term of good behavior. 

Suffrage was carefully limited. Only freeholders worth 
^100 could vote for governor or senators, and freehold- 
ers worth £20 for assemblymen. At the same time the 
progressi\'e spirit of the framers was shown by a pro\'is- 
ion for testing the method of voting by ballot, which, it 
was said, divers of the good people of the state had long 
had the opinion would tend more to preserve the equal 
freedom of the people than voting viva voce. 

The people had no pleasing recollection of the au- 
thority of the colonial governor, and so the powers of The veto, 
that officer in the state were closely restricted. The 
veto power, in the form in which it is now possessed by 
the president of the United States, was vested, not in 
the governor alone, but in a council of revision, com- 
posed of the governor, the judges of the supreme court, 
and the chancellor. And the appointing power was 
given to a council, composed of the governor and four 



2i6 The Growth of the American Nation. 

senators, the latter chosen annually, one from each Sen- 
ate district, by the Assembly. The powers of the coun- 
The council of ^il of appointment were very ereat. The only public 

appointments. ^^ . 

officers chosen by popular election were the governor 
and the legislature. A few were selected by the legis- 
lature. But the council of appointment named all the 
judges, all the justices of the peace, all the mayors of 
cities, all the sheriffs. 

Under this highly centralized and rather aristocratic 
New York constitution the politics of New York soon proved as 

politics. ... 

vigorous and influential as in our own day. The first 
governor was George Clinton, who turned out to be a 
sturdy Anti-Federalist and a stanch adherent of Jeffer- 
son in forming the new Republican party. Governor 
Clinton held the chair for six successive terms, being 
succeeded in 1795 by John Jay, the first chief justice of 
the United States, who came into office on the rising tide 
of Federalism. Governor Jay was reelected in 1798, 
but in turn was succeeded in 1801 by Clinton. With 
the exception of the six years of Jay's administration, 
the state steadily elected governors of the same political 
faith from 1777 until 1838, when William H. Seward was 
chosen by the Whigs. 

The council of appointments proved in the end a 
Origin of most pcrnicious device. With each change of factions 

spoils politics. ^ , - 

in the Assembly the council swept out of office a host of 
their opponents and replaced them by others of their 
own stripe. This practice became especially common 
after Governor Clinton and Governor Jay had retired 
from the scene, and after the Tammany society, origi- 
nally merely a benevolent organization, had, largely by 
the ingenuity of Aaron Burr, been converted into a 
political machine. By these means the spoils system 
became thoroughly intrenched in New York politics. 



Local Life. 



217 



In 1 82 1 the peoiDle chose a constitutional convention 
which made some material changes in the organic law. 
The council of appointments was swept away, the ap- 
pointing power being divided among the governor, the 
legislature, and the people. The governor was given 
the veto power, suffrage was made uniform and was ex- 
tended to all taxpayers, and the courts were largely re- 



New consti- 
tution of New 
York in 1S21. 




The Erie Canal at Buffalo. 

constructed. Five years later the property qualification 
was removed from suffrage, except for colored voters. 

Through all these years the state had been steadily 
growing in population and wealth. The western wilder- 
ness filled with settlers, and the great forests were re- 
placed by fields of wheat and corn. A prominent means 
of advancing this material development was the Erie 
Canal. Its results on the development of the West 
can only be compared with those of the Pacific railroads 
in later years. New York State reaped the first bene- 
fits, both in the rapid growth of its great seaport, which 



The Erie 
Canal ; see 
p. 208. 



2i8 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Rapid growth 
of New York. 



Education. 



Banks. 



Courts. 



now became the one outlet of western traffic, and in the 
settlement of its own western counties. New York was 
the fifth state in population in 1790, the third in 1800, 
the second in 18 10, and in 1820 it became the first. But 
in the decade from 1820 to 1830, Virginia, which until 
1820 had been the most populous state in the Union, 
increased only about twenty per cent, while New York 
increased nearly fifty per cent. 

Not only did the state develop in its canals and turn- 
pikes, its own system of communication, but it also cre- 
ated its own means of public education, its own banking 
institutions, and its own jurisprudence. 

Various acts of the legislature for the aid of education 
culminated in 1813 in the appointment of a state super- 
intendent of common schools, under whose efficient 
management a system of primary education was success- 
fully organized. And the colleges, which had been 
founded largely by private beneficence, received also 
various sums from the legislature — a favorite means of 
aiding them being the grant of a lottery. 

Banks, in the early history of the state, were thought 
of as favors to be granted to political adherents. And 
accordingly certain institutions were customarily re- 
garded as Federalist banks, or Republican banks, as 
the case might be, and they were apt to confine dis- 
counts to those of their own party. And so acute were 
the struggles in the legislature for these privileges, and 
so much scandal resulted, that in 1821 the new consti- 
tution made a two thirds vote of each House a requisite 
to any such charter. It was not until 1838 that the busi- 
ness was thrown open to all on the same conditions. 

The courts of New York have developed a body of 
legal science which is followed in the practice of nearly 
all the states. The great names of Jay, Livingston, 



The town- 



Local Life. 219 

and Kent would illustrate the bench of any country. 

But in every state there is a unit of local life yet 
nearer the people. In New England it is the town, meeting. 
The first settlers grouped themselves in the wilderness 
around the church. Their dwellings were near together, 
for convenience of united defense against the Indians. 
Thus a village was formed, which was in fact but a 
church, organized ecclesiastically for worship, as a civil 
community for the transaction of common affairs, and 
as an armed force for military protection. The pastor 
was preeminent in authority. But yet the village was a 
democracy, in which each freeman had an equal \'oice. 
And in the mass meeting of freemen the general busi- 
ness was done, officers were chosen, taxes were levied, 
representatives elected to the General Court. And this 
assembly, at the outset the result of the peculiar condi-' 
tions of the immigrants, became the distinctive feature 
of New England public organization — the town-meeting. 
And it was only reluctantly that with great increase of pop- 
ulation a representative city government was substituted 
in the larger towns. Boston only became a city in 1821. 

In the South the unit was the county. The southern 

, , 1 . , . , . , The southern 

nnmigrants settled on plantations, each with its cluster county, 
of dwellings for the white household and the black 
slaves, but the clusters scattered over a wide area. A 
mass meeting of freemen for many purposes was im- 
practicable. Naturally most of the common business was 
delegated to officers chosen for the purpose. The 
county organization was the political unit, as the planta- 
tion was the social unit. And the Episcopal Church, 
which in colonial times was so powerful in the Southern 
States, was quite different from the Congregational 
democracy of New England. Hence, in the South the 
town hardly appears at all. 



220 The Growth of the American Nation. 

The Middle I" the South the town-meeting does not exist, and in 

states. j^g^ England the county cuts little figure. New York 

adopted a compromise system. The town manages its 
own affairs, quite after the New England method. 
Each town elects a supervisor and all the supervisors 
thus chosen in a county form a county board, with 
large legislative and administrative functions. The 
county also has a judicial and administrative staff- 
county judge, surrogate, clerk, treasurer, sheriff, and 
others. It was a long step in the direction of home rule 
when the Constitutional Convention of 1821 transferred 
the choice of these officers, or the most of them, to the 
people of the counties respectively. 

In Pennsylvania the town has essentially the New 
England organization, but the county board, unlike the 
New York supervisor system, consists of a few repre- 
sentatives elected from the county at large. 

By a glance at this system it will be seen that the 
people of the United States are thoroughly imbued with 
the idea of home rule. This in New York became fully 
established only after the Revolution had freed the col- 
ony from the status of a crown dependency. Home 
rule was no part of the Dutch policy, and was only par- 
tially and grudgingly conceded by the English adminis- 
tration. Thus that state continued under aristocratic 
methods and reached full popular sovereignty and local 
self-government rather slowly. 

But it will be seen that the constant practice of man- 
its value, aging public affairs in which one's interests are closely 
concerned gives an experience and confidence which are 
the foundations of success in a democratic republic. 

Emigrants from the East and the South carried with 
them to their new home the habits and methods with 
which they were familiar. Thus in the Northwestern 



Home rule. 



Local Life. 221 

States in general the local methods of the Middle States The East and 
and New England are in vogue, while in Kentucky, ducediiuh^ 
Tennessee, and the Southwest the southern county is the ^"^' 
unit. Illinois was originally settled in its southern por- 
tion by Americans from Kentucky, who brought the 
county idea with them. Later settlers came by way of 
the lakes to the northern part, and there the town was 
planted. So this state has the anomalous plan of a dual 
organization, some counties having the southern system 
of county government and others the town organization. 

The striking fact in all the new states of the Union is 
the reproduction everywhere of local home rule. The 
free school, the church separate from state support, the 
town or county, each controlled by those immediately 
concerned — these are the essence of the American system. 

Local pride is a large factor in the life of the republic. 
The people as a rule are attached to the institutions of , , . , 

, . Local pride. 

their own state. In the great western cities there are 
thriving social associations composed of natives of Maine, 
of New York, or of other Eastern States. Naturally it 
is the older states which have gathered about them the 
most of sentiment, as in the West the population often 
has not had time to strike its roots very deep into the 
soil. And in the South state pride has from the first i^™"g '" ^'^^ 

^ South. 

been much stronger than in the North — stronger even 
than national patriotism, as was seen in 1861. This 
doubtless was partly due to the relative fixity of southern 
society — a condition which since the great industrial 
changes caused by the Civil War has been materially 
altered. Local pride in the cities is a powerful force in 
their development. Yet, on the whole, American ex- 
perience has shown that local spirit is only a specialized 
form of that larger patriotism which is the life-blood of 
the republic. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ANDREW JACKSON AND NULLIFICATION. 



The new 
democracy. 



Jackson's per- 
sonality. 



References. — Schouler ; Sumner :y«r/^^(9;// Schurz : Clay; 
Von Hoist : Calhoun; \'on Hoist : United States. 

With the election of Andrew Jackson to the presi- 
dency there came to the national administration a new 
party, a new personality, a new policy. 

The old Democratic Republican party of Jefferson had 
passed through decided changes. The resistless demo- 
cratic sweep of the times had carried the nation with it, 
and society was everywhere democratic. The party 
more and more assumed the name " Democratic," and 
after the election of Jackson that name became the usual 
one, and the name indicated the fact. It was the new 
democracy which invaded the White House with the old 
Tennessee Indian fighter. And it was organized anew. 
The skill of Martin Van Buren was transferred from New 
York to the nation, and it availed to construct a party 
machine of rare perfection. And this skilful organiza- 
tion, backed by the vast popularity of the old hero, was 
invincible. 

None of our presidents has more impressed his per- 
sonality on history than did Andrew Jackson. Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, each in his own way, most 
powerfully influenced the destiny of the republic. Wash- 
ington made the republic possible, Jefferson made it 
popular, Lincoln made it permanent. And yet in more 
bold relief than any of these stands out against the back- 



Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 



223 



ground of his times the rugged and unique character of 
Jackson. 

Some common impressions of that character perhaps 
need correction — one at least. 

He was attacked by his enemies as a " miUtary chief- 
tain," and certainly nothing weighed more in the popu- 
lar mind at the time than his brilliant and crushing vic- 
tory at New Orleans. In sliuil, wr arc ai)t to class liim 
in a certain way 
with Napoleon, as 
a professional sol- 
dier who by his 
military glory was 
elevated to power 
in civil life. 

In point of fact 
Jackson's military 




"A military 
chieftain." 



life, SO far as actual *,l'''l 
war is concerned, 
was very brief He- 
was not educated 
for the army. Be- 
fore the Wai I 
1 81 2 he was a 1 \ 
yer, a planter, a 
politician. And it 

was in this last Andrew Jackson. 

oanQf-itir that" hp Born, 1767 ; died, 1S45. Lawyer ; member of Con- 

capacuy liidi 11c gress from Tennessee, 1797; U. S. senator, 1797-8; 

'jprnrpd an an- Judge, Tennessee Supreme Court, 1798-1804; 

scLLiicva ctii dp major-general of Tennessee militia, 1801-14 ; vic- 

t-> ,-,i Ti t m p n f Qc torious campaign against the Indians, 1813-14; 

poiULnieUL db major-general, U. S. A., 1814 ; victory of New 

moi'nr- n-pripral n f Orleans, 1815 ; governor of Florida, 1821-3 ; U. S. 

majur-geueidi ui senator from Tennessee, 1823-5 ; president of the 

the Tennessee United states, 1829-37. 

militia — a position which he held for several years, and 

which in "piping times of peace" is certainly sufifi- 



His military 
record. 



224 '^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. 



Campaign 
against the 
Indians. 



Campaign 
against the 
British. 



Mental traits. 



Positiveness. 



Directness. 



ciently innocuous. When the war broke out the United 
States had practically no army, and of course the militia 
was at once called on for service. This service on the Ten- 
nessee frontier consisted in an expedition against the hos- 
tile Alabama Indians — an expedition which the militia 
general led with entire success. After only seven months 
of campaigning, the broken remnant of the savages made 
a treaty of peace on the Hickory ground, and the war 
was ended. This was in the spring of 1 8 14. As a re- 
ward for this brilliant Indian campaign Jackson was ap- 
pointed major-general in the regular army of the United 
States and given command in the Southwest. And in 
the following January his indomitable energy, aided by 
the perverse blundering of the British generals, enabled 
him to close the War of 181 2 with a decisive victory. 
This was his last battle. 

Jackson's military life, then, was all included in about 
eighteen months of service in war. He fought only one 
battle with white men, and at the time he fought his first 
battle with the Indians he was over forty-five years old. 

The general had not had the benefit of education and 
wide experience of the world, like Jefferson and John 
Quincy Adams, nor had he the indomitable thirst for 
knowledge of Lincoln. But what he did know he knew 
clearly, and perhaps it was this fact which made him so 
positive in all of his many opinions. He always knew 
that he was right — whether he was or not. 

This characteristic positiveness was accompanied by 
three kindred qualities, directness, tenacity, pugnacity. 
If he thought a given end desirable he always moved 
straight toward it by the shortest path. With delay and 
roundabout methods he had no patience. Obstacles 
merely enraged him — they never discouraged him. In- 
deed, when anything got in his way his only thought was 



Combativeness. 



Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 225 

to smash it, and smash it he usually did, sooner or later. 
When his mind was open on any subject, it was not 
difficult for a friend to influence him. But when he had Tenacity, 
once reached a conclusion, a friend rarely, and a foe 
never, could induce him to reconsider. An idea which 
crystallized in his thoughts became like adamant. 

Difference of opinion he could not tolerate. Though 
the question were the most abstract, it mattered not. 
Lack of agreement was lack of friendship. Lack of 
friendship was enmity, and with an enemy he had always 
but one course — instant, open, and ceaseless war. 

With this positive, straightforward, and combative dis- 
position were joined entire honesty, unflinching courage, 
and great kindness and loyalty to all who won his friend- 
ship. 

Now it is evident that these are qualities of a man of 
action, but not such as would necessarily fit one to deal 
with complex and delicate questions. But it is just 
these strong and elementary traits that seize the popular 
fancy. And so in all our national history no other hero 
or statesman has ever had such a hold on the plain peo- 
ple as did Andrew Jackson. They admired him and 
loved him and trusted him. Whether he was right in 
his view of the facts or sound in his judgment they 
hardly questioned. Their conclusive answer to all cavil 
was, ' ' Hurrah for Jackson. 

The question at issue in 1828 which determined the elec- consolidation 
tion of Jackson was mainly personal. It was not National "ra^tion'party!" 
Republican policies which were defeated so much as 
it was Adams and Clay. Low tariff men in the South 
and high tariff" men in Pennsylvania united against the 
administration. And to weld together these and all the 
other incoherent elements of opposition which were now 
triumphant was the first task of the victors. To that 



Popularity. 



226 The Growth of the American Nation. 

end the first message of the new president, in 1829, was 
made non-committal on the burning questions of tariff 
and internal improvements. But first of all the methods 
of the New York political machine were applied to the 
federal administration. 
The civil serv- It had been the common understanding up to this time 
"^^' that the national civil service was a life profession. Those 

who entered it gave up private business and expected 
undisturbed tenure in return for faithful performance of 
duty. Even cabinet officers often were not changed with 
a change of administration. But the Jackson men came 
into power with new theories. In their view the national 
offices were primarily the property of the victorious 
party, to be used as rewards for political service. As 
The spoils Marcy expressed it in the Senate in 1830, " The spoils 

system. ^|- ^j^^ enemy belong to the victors. ' ' And the victorious 

politicians descended on Washington like a flock of buz- 
zards. They knew that there were friends to be re- 
warded and enemies to be punished. 

During the forty years from the inauguration of Wash- 
S^^y^M^i^ 334. ington to that of Jackson, the presidents had in all re- 
moved seventy-four persons from office, mostly for mis- 
behavior or incompetence. Jackson in his first year re- 
moved 491 postmasters and 239 other officers. Includ- 
ing the subordinates necessarily involved with their prin- 
cipals, this implied about 2,000 changes. And thus the 
pernicious spoils system became fixed in our national 
politics. It has embittered political strife, corrupted and 
enfeebled the public service, and debased the public con- 
science. It has reacted disastrously on the conduct of 
state and local affairs. In fact, it is not an exaggeration 
to say that it has proved one of the gravest dangers to 
which our experiment of republican government has been 
exposed. And this evil legacy from Jackson's time is 



Andrew Jackson aiid Nullification. 



227 



yet largely with us. But it served its purpose at the 
time in welding together a compact political machine. 

It might be added here that President Jackson's first 
cabinet went to pieces in a couple of years, and was re- The cabinet 
constructed on the same principle as the rest of the civil 
service — unquestioned devotion to the chief But this 
particular upheaval arose from other than political causes 
— in short, from a war among the cabinet ladies. We 




Andrew Jackson's Administration. 

E3 Stales 
E3 Territories 

British PosB. 
UnnSparish Poss. 



need not dwell on the details. Suffice it to say that the . , . . 

-' Jackson routed 

battles were relentless and terrific. Jackson could never ^y '^e ladies, 
keep out of a fight, and soon he was in the hottest of 
this. But the enraged and puzzled old hero found that 
he was dealing with an enemy more formidable than 
Alabama savages or British grenadiers. The victor of 
New Orleans was ingloriously routed. But great was 
the ruin. The cabinet was disrupted. Vice-president 
Calhoun lost his chance of being Jackson's successor. 



228 



The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



The tariff. 



Act of 1824. 
Moderate pro- 
tection. 



Act of 1828. 
High pro- 
tection. 



Discontent in 
the South. 



Sly Martin Van Buren slipped into the vice-presidency, 
and then succeeded to the presidency. And at least a 
largely contributing cause to all these and other political 
upheavals was the fact that Mrs. Calhoun and other 
ladies of the administration declined to give social recog- 
nition to the wife of the secretary of war. 

The most vital questions of Jackson's first term were 
connected with the tariff. The moderately protective 
tariff of 1824 had been enacted by a combination of 
the Central and Western States, and had been opposed 
by the South and East. But New England had then 
turned largely to manufacturing, and so many of her 
people were ready to join with the other sections in 
favor of still further protection. In 1828 a new bill was 
passed, considerably increasing the duties. The woolen 
industry demanded more effective aid, and the thirty- 
three and one third per cent rates on these products 
were accordingly raised to over forty per cent. In 
order to obtain this advance other interests were helped 
in proportion, so that the bill received the support of all 
sections of the Union but the South * — and even here 
the sugar cane of Louisiana enlisted that state on the side 
of high tariff. The average rate on dutiable goods was 
made over forty-three per cent. 

But the other Southern States saw no benefit in the 
new measure. It was plainly a tariff" primarily for pro- 
tection, as more revenue was not needed. The cotton, 
tobacco, and rice of the South were shipped mainly to 
Europe, and in the European markets the price of these 
commodities would be no higher by reason of an Amer- 
ican tariff On the other hand, the high duties would 
tend to raise the price of all manufactured articles which 
the agricultural states might consume. So for the South 

* A majority from New England was against it, but the minority was large. 



Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 229 

there was no gain, and apparently a sure loss — and all 
for the benefit of other sections. 

The general prosperity of the Union had not been 
shared by the South to the same extent as by the North. Lack of prog- 

•' _ ■' ress in South- 

In the latter section wealth and population had gone ^rn states. 

on rolling up enormously. Southern states, however, 
while they had made very great gains from the vastly 
increased production of cotton made possible by Whit- 
ney's invention for cleaning it from the seed, still had 
been distanced by their commercial and manufacturing 
fellow states. In the area included by those of the orig- 
inal thirteen which lay south of Mason and Dixon's 
line the increase of population between 1790 and 1820 
was about sixty per cent. The increase north of that 
line was fully twice as great. In the North, too, the 
principal seaports were rapidly growing into great cities, 
while southern towns were relatively stagnant. This 
disparity in progress the South attributed to the fostering 
care of government directed to the benefit of the North. 
There can be little doubt that the manufacturing and 
commercial states were stimulated by the protective sys- 
tem more than was the section which was purely agri- Causes, 
cultural — and all the more in the case of such staples as 
cotton, of which the principal market was found in 
Europe. However, the effects of the institution of 
slave labor were really adverse to the section which 
fostered it, and equally, of course, it could hardly be 
expected that those effects should be clearly understood 

. . . Injustice to the 

at the time. So it is not at all strange that the southern South, 
planting states should regard themselves as the victims 
of oppression. 

But where was the remedy? Not in the Supreme The remedy. 
Court, as Congress by the constitution was vested with 
the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 



230 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Kentucky reso- 
lutions of 1798. 



Kentucky reso- 
lutions of 1799. 



Nullification. 



excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
defense and general welfare of the United States ' ' ; and 
it could not be denied that the tariff laws were, in the 
discretion of Congress, enacted for these constitutional 
purposes. Apparently not in the national legislature. 
New England originally had stood by the South in op- 
position to a high tariff. In other words, the shipping 
and agricultural interests were combined against the 
manufacturers. 

Was there, then, any other recourse ? 

Calhoun thought that he found a solution in the words 
of the Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99: ''Resolved, 
that whenever the general government as- 
sumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, 
void, and of no force ; . . . . that this govern- 
ment, created by this compact, was not made the ex- 
clusive or final judge of the extent of the powers dele- 
gated to itself .... But that, as in all other 
cases of compact among parties having no common 
judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, 
as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of 
redress." ''Resolved, that .... the several 
states who formed that instrument being sovereign and 
independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of 
the infractions ; and that a nullification by those sover- 
eignties .... is the rightful remedy." The 
resolutions of 1798 were drafted by Jefferson. And 
while he did not draw those of 1799, we know that in 
his original draft in the previous year occur substantially 
the second resolve above quoted, including both the 
idea and the word nnllijication. 

And the right to make laws of the Union null and void 
necessarily implies the further right to withdraw from the 
Union if any state should deem proper. 



Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 231 

Nullification and secession, as lawful means of redress 
against federal oppression, of course implied a concep- 
tion of the nature of the constitution very different 
from that which the course of e\-ents has established. 
Calhoun held that the Union was a compact between 
equal sovereign states — that each state was the final f^fg^ °ies ^ 
arbiter, so far" as it was concerned, of the constitution- 
ality of federal statutes — and that any state had a right 
at any time to recon- 
sider its adoption of 
the constitution and 
to secede from the 
Union. These views 
he urged with great 
eloquence and force 
of logic. Dan iel 
Webster combated 
them in the Senate of 
the United States with 
some of the most 
masterly and power- 
ful arguments in the 
range of constitu- 
tional exposition. 

The first consti- 
tution formed by the John C. Calhoun. 

insuro-ent colonies was ^°'"' '"^2; died, 1850. Educated at Yale; 

nibUri^eilL CUtl.)njes vvab lawyer ; member of Congress, 1S11-17 ; secre- 

/-nllj^rl " Ai-1-ir-lpc r\^ taO' of war, 1817-25 ; vice-president of the 

caneu r\\ lilics ui united States, 1823-32 (resigned) ; U. S. sena- 

P<-.T-\ ff^rl (at-Q finn anrl tor from South Carolina, 1S32-43 ; secretary 

L^OnieaeraUOn ana ^f state, 1844-5; U. S. senator from South 

Perpetual Union." Carolina, 1845-50. 
The preamble to the constitution of 1787 recited as 
one of its purposes "to form a more perfect union." 
It is hard to see how it would accord with these ex- 
press characteristics of the new frame of go\'ernment 




232 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Constitution of 
the United 
States, Art VI., 
Sec. 2. 



Constitution, 
Art. III., Sec. 2. 



Tariflfofi832. 



Nullification 
convention in 
South Carolina. 



that the perpetuity of the Union should be at the 
option of each of its constituent members. Further, the 
constitution specifically provides that "this constitution, 
and the laws of the United States which shall be made 
in pursuance thereof .... shall be the supreme 
law of the land ; and the judges in every state shall be 
bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of 
any state to the contrary notwithstanding." And an- 
other provision makes the federal judiciary the final 
arbiter of the conflict of laws. 

In other words, Calhoun's theory made the United 
States a loose and temporary confederation ; Webster 
regarded the constitution as creating a permanent nation. 

After the Tariff Act of 1828, nullification began to be 
urged in the South and it won many adherents. In 
1832 Congress, in response to the strong southern feel- 
ing, passed a new tariff bill. But after all this appeared 
to give no great relief Most of the merely revenue 
taxes were taken ofT. Some protective duties were re- 
duced. But the principle of protection was fully 
retained. 

When this was plainly seen, the nullification tide in 
South Carolina rose higher and swept away the con- 
servative sentiment. The new legislature summoned a 
state convention, which met in November. This con- 
vention adopted an ordinance which declared the Tariff 
Acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void in South Carolina 
— prohibiting appeals from the state courts to the federal 
courts, requiring all state officers to take an oath to 
support the ordinance, and threatening secession if the 
United States should attempt coercion. February i, 1833, 
was fixed as the date on which the ordinance should go 
into efTect. 

Jackson was a southern man, and had not always 



Andrew Jackson and Nullification. 233 

shown respect for the authority of the federal court. 

But he was a sincere patriot, and vigorously opposed to *'r°"[d^°/"'^ 

all theories of nullification and secession. Accordingly 

in December he issued a ringing Union address to the 

people of South Carolina, and promptly prepared to 

use the federal army and navy if necessary. Congress 

then took up the matter, and adopted two measures. 

One was what the president desired — an act giving him 

special authority to use such force as might be needed. The Force Bin. 

The other was Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill. 

This provided for the reduction of the tariff by a sliding 

scale, a portion being taken off each alternate year, mise Tariff Bin. 

until in 1842 the rate on dutiable goods should be 

twenty per cent, with a large free list. The two bills 

became law at the same time. 

Jackson would have preferred to settle the matter by 
the Force Act alone. But the Tariff Bill of course fication. 
removed the cause for nullification, and the South 
Carolina convention therefore repealed the nullifying 
ordinance. Without the compromise Jackson would 
doubtless have put down nullification with a strong 
hand. As it was, the nuUifiers had wo» their point. 
And thereafter the threat of secession was a powerful 
weapon. 



End of nulli- 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE PANIC OF 1837. 

References. — Schouler ; Sumner : Jackson ; Laughlin : 
Bhnetallisin iii the United States, Chs. ii.-iv. ; Knox : United 
States Notes. 



A period of 
economic de- 
velopment. 



Government 
and prosperity. 



As HAS been said, the period between the second war 
with England and the war with Mexico in 1846 has as its 
characteristic feature the economic development of the 
nation. Migration and settlement in the West, stimu- 
lated by the improved means of transportation, rapidly 
opened new lands to cultivation, and thus increased the 
productive power of the republic. Manufactures, stimu- 
lated by the Non-Intercourse Acts and the War of 181 2, 
and then by the protective tariffs, grew to great propor- 
tions. And commerce, when it had once recovered from 
the confusion caused by the foreign commotions, ad- 
justed itself to the new conditions, and again moved on 
with accelerating energy. E\'erywhere enterprise was 
active, business was expanding, men were getting ahead 
in life, vigor and hope were in the air. 

When the main thought of the people was absorbed 
in this busy material prosperity, it was natural that the 
government should be expected to aid the general wel- 
fare. It was a democratic government, created by the 
people, and existing for the people. The tremendous 
impetus to prosperity caused by the initiation of the con- 
stitution and by Hamilton's plans of finance was by no 
means forgotten. The Republicans, to be sure, had 
thought that the Federalists did too much governing. 

234 



The Panic of J8jy. 235 

But a quarter of a century ot Republican rule liad prac- 
ticiiUy made Federalists of a good share of the Jefifer- 
sonian party. The National Republicans frankly adopted 
a policy of governmental supervision of business inter- 
ests. And the Democrats, as the Jackson Republicans 
now began to be commonly called, were far from con- 
sistent in the contrary policy. 

One prominent form in which the government at- 
tempted to aid private enterprise was the protective 
tariff. The National Republicans generally favored high 
duties, while the Democrats were divided. It was only 
the determined opposition of the South which, as has 
been seen, led to the partial revision of 1832, and to the 
practical abandonment of protection in the sliding scale 
of 1833. 

An essential means of carrying on business is some 
monetary medium. And from the beginning of our '''"'^ banking. 
national life this has been provided in three ways. 

The first has consisted of coin. By the mint law of 
1792 the dollar was made the unit, and the principal 
coins were of silver and gold, the ratio of value between 
the two metals being fixed at fifteen to one. Thus at 
the mint an ounce of gold was equivalent to fifteen ounces 
of silver. But at that very time (1792) in the market 
an ounce of gold would buy more than fifteen ounces of 
silver. And the disparity in the value of the two metals, 
while fluctuating considerably, on the whole increased 
rather than diminished. Of course the result was that 
money brokers used such gold as they could get in buy- 
ing silver bullion, or foreign silver coins which they 
melted into bullion ; in either case sending the bullion to 
the mint to be coined. And so the gold currency slowly 
drifted away to other countries, silver coming in to take 
its place. Soon after the War of 181 2 it began to be 



The currency 



Coin. 



236 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Excepting, of 
course, the 
copper cents. 



Laughlin, 55. 



Paper currency. 



Bank checks 
and drafts. 



noticed that gold had entirely disappeared from circula- 
tion, and until after the new Coinage Act of 1834 silver 
was really our whole coin supply. 

But it was not all our own coinage. The American 
dollar was somewhat lighter than the Spanish pieces 
which circulated to the south of our border. However, 
they were taken indifferently in the West Indies, and so 
our merchants were apt to send American dollars abroad, 
bringing the Spanish coins back in exchange. The gain 
was in the slight premium which the latter bore here. 
The result was that of thirty-four million dollars of 
silver coined in the United States up to 1830 only four- 
teen million dollars remained in the country at that 
date, and the rest of the coin afloat consisted of Spanish, 
Mexican, and South American money. 

A second medium of exchange was composed of bank 
notes. The first Bank of the United States furnished a 
currency which was uniformly good throughout the 
United States. At the same time there were banks of 
issue chartered by the several states, whose notes were 
more or less good. In 181 1 the charter of the Bank of 
the United States expired, and its currency was replaced 
by that of a great number of state banks. During the 
War of 18 1 2 all these banks suspended specie payments. 
Thus the only ' ' money ' ' was uncertain and depreciated 
paper. In 18 16 the second Bank of the United States 
began its career. It secured the resumption of specie 
payments, and provided by its notes a good paper 
medium, everywhere current and redeemable in coin. 

A third form of making payments was, as now, bank 
checks and drafts. This, as is well known, is the form 
in which more than nine tenths of all the business of 
civilized countries is done to-day. The vast expansion 
of modern business would be impossible if actual money 



The Panic of iSjj. 237 

had to pass with every transaction. Of course the local 
banks performed the usual function of receiving de- 
posits subject to check, of making commercial loans, 
and buying and selling exchange, /. e. , drafts on distant 
places. The Bank of the United States did all this busi- 
ness also, besides being, like most of the state institu- See pp. 195-6. 
tions, a bank of issue. And it had a great advantage in 
its large capital, in its twenty-five branches (the parent 
bank was at Philadelphia), and in its monopoly of the 
government business. 

In Jackson's first inaugural he attacked the Bank of 
the United States, and again the following year. It 
seems that there were reasons for this other than those 
of the science of finance. He was led to believe by his 
inner circle of trusted followers, the so-called "kitchen 
cabinet," that the bank had opposed his election. 
Further, Biddle, the president, declined to allow poli- 
tics to enter into bank management, and was per- 
haps a little too independent in his way of doing it. 
All this aroused the ire of the old hero, and he was jackson's 
easily convinced that the great fiscal agency was a giant aroused, 
monopoly which was dangerous to the government and 
to the interests of the people. Accordingly he deter- 
mined to crush it. But the National Republicans were 
in sympathy with the bank, and thought it "good poli- 
tics" to oppose Jackson. They held a national con- 
vention in Baltimore in December, 1831, and nominated 
Henry Clay for president.* And in the ensuing session 
of Congress they took up the cause of the bank. Al- 
though the charter would not expire until 1836, a bill was 
introduced for a renewal, and passed both Houses. Many 

* In the previous September a national convention of Anti-Masons had nomi- 
nated a presidential ticket, and their example was now followed by all parties. 
Until 1824 presidential candidates had been nominated by a congressional 
caucus. 



238 The Growth of the American Natio7i. 

Veto of the Democrats favored it. It went to the president in July, 

bank bill, 1832. and he vetoed it. 

In the presidential election then pending, this veto, as 
well as the new spoils system in the civil service, was 
made a prominent issue by the opponents of Jackson, 
■^f^'t^d" T ^^^ ^^^ popularity was invincible, and he was over- 
whelmingly triumphant. 

Jackson accepted his election as a popular indorsement 
of his entire policy, the bank war included. And now, 
still influenced by his "kitchen cabinet," he determined 
to destroy the ' ' monster. 

On the pretext that the bank was unsafe, he ordered 
Removal of the the secretary of the treasury to remove from it the de- 

deposits, 1833. _ -^ _ -' 

posits of public funds, and to place them in state banks. 
Duane, the secretary, believed this to be dangerous 
and unjust, and he refused to do it. Jackson removed 
him and appointed Taney in his place, and he ga\-e the 
required order. No more deposits were made in the 
Bank of the United States, and the current checks soon 
drew out all the national funds then in its keeping. 

The treasury balance was then deposited in a number 

The 'I pet of State banks, carefully selected for party loyalty. The 

withdrawal of the deposits, of course, was a serious 

blow to the Bank of the United States. It was obliged 

to call in loans, and its exchanges were demoralized. 

The next year the administration party took a new 

Coinage Act of step in reference to money. It was their belief that gold 
had been driven away partly by the abundance of paper, 
and partly by undervaluation. The president tried, but 
without success, to persuade the banks to confine their 
issues to large bills — five or ten dollars. And the Coin- 
age Act of 1834 made the ratio of gold to silver about 
one to sixteen instead of one to fifteen. At that time in 
the market an ounce of gold was worth about 15.7 ounces 



The Panic of i8jj. 239 



of silver. So of course the new ratio overvalued gold and 
was an inducement to the importation of that metal and 
the exportation of silver — just reversing the process 
which had been going on under the old law. 

The national debt had been steadily reduced after the 
War of 1812, and in i8^s the last dollar was paid. But Extinction of 

^^ ... ''^^ national 

from the sale of public lands and from import duties a debt, 1835. 
stream of revenue still flowed into the treasury, far be- 
yond the needs of government. This had been foreseen 
for some time, and the question what to do with the 
surplus had been eagerly discussed. Of course one way 
would have been to lessen the receipts — by reducing the 
number of dutiable articles on the tariff list, and by selling 
go\'ernment land for a nominal price. But Congress 
would agree to neither of these suggestions. The 
money in the treasury, again, might be used for fortifi- 
cations on the seaboard, as Senator Benton urged, or 

. 1 r 1 1 II Disposal of the 

lor mternal miprovements under lederal control, as the surplus. 
National Republicans preferred. But it was decided 
that the fairest disposition would be a distribution pro 
rata among the states. This would obviate the ob- 
jection of unconstitutionality brought against national 
works, and would enable every section of the country 
to reap a just share of the common property. 

But many strict constructionists hesitated to vote for 
a gift to the states, finding no warrant in the constitu- 
tion. Accordingly it was enacted that the surplus which 
should be on hand after January i, 1837, beyond a fixed 
reserve, should be deposited with the states. The the states, 1837. 
payments should be in quarterly installments. The total 
amount disposable was found to be over $37,000,000. 
Three installments were actually paid over, but before ^^^^^ o, xii. 
the fourth could be made ready the great financial panic 
had left the treasury bankrupt. 



240 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Van Buret!. 



See p. 227. 



Tatiey. 



Van Buret! 
elected presi- 
dei!t, 1836. 



Jackson's first secretary of state was Martin \"an 
Buren, of New York. He was a very shrewd politician, 
who succeeded ahvays in keeping in the president's con- 
fidence. His long experience in the "Albany regency," 
the group of Democratic leaders who controlled the 
politics of the Empire State, had fitted him for the dex- 
terous management of political affairs. Being a widower, 
he was not complicated in the tangle of Jackson's cab- 
inet, and was able later to retire with dignity to the 
English mission. But after he had sailed, the Senate, 
in which the enemies of Jackson had a majority, rejected 
his nomination, and Van Buren thus was obliged to 
undergo the humiliation of returning. But this affront 
to Jackson proved a boomerang to the Senate. The 
Democratic convention of 1832, which renominated the 
old hero, joined with him on the ticket Van Buren. 
And thus he whom the Senate had scornfully rejected 
came back to preside over that body. 

Another rejected nomination was that of Taney. 
Soon after he had proved so serviceable to Jackson in 
the matter of removing the deposits, his name was sent 
in to the Senate for a place on the bench of the Supreme 
Court. The Senate gave an adverse vote. But in 1835 
the great chief justice, John Marshall, died. And now 
the Senate, being partially reconstructed, confirmed the 
nomination of Taney for the succession. 

To cap the climax of Jackson's triumphs, in 1836 he 
secured the nomination of Van Buren to the presidency. 
The opposition, who had now come to call themseK'es 
Whigs, in token of their hostility to what they called 
the dictatorial ways of the president, also tried an ' ' old 
hero" in the person of William Henry Harrison, a vet- 
eran of the War of 181 2. But V^an Buren was elected. 

And in the closing months of Old Hickory's admin- 



The Payiic of i8jy. 241 



istration he was gratified by a still dearer personal \ictory. 

In 1834 the Senate had passed a vote of censure on the 

president for removing the deposits. In January, 1837, The censure of 

this vote was ordered to be expunged from the records, punged/'*^ ^^' 

Jackson was so delighted with this action that he ga\'e a 

dinner to those who voted for expunging. 

Jackson retired to his home in Tennessee. As has 
been said, "He had won all his battles, rewarded all his ja'^cksoll^" '^ 
friends, punished all his enemies." No American pres- 
ident has ever had more entire success in attaining his 
ends. No American president has more completely 
won the devotion and confidence of the masses. The 
secret of Jackson's strength was simply that he saw with 
the eyes and was animated with the feelings of the plain, 
common people. He was one of them. They knew it. 
They knew, too, his utter honesty and fearlessness. 
And whether he was fighting the bank monopoly, or 
sending troops to crush nullification, or maintaining the 
honor of the flag abroad, he was always the trusted hero 
of the democracy. 

Van Buren was scarcely in office when business Irom xhe panic. 
one end of the country to the other collapsed with a 
crash. Commercial houses suspended, factories closed 
their doors, banks failed, wages disappeared. Among 
others, the "pet banks" went down, carrying the fed- 
eral treasury deposits with them. 

What was the cause of all this disaster ? The Whigs 
said it was the destruction of the Bank of the United '^^'^ causes. 
States and the scaling down of the tariff in 1833. 
Whatever effect these measures might have had, it is 
clear that other causes had been at work. The decade 
immediately preceding had witnessed a great expansion 
of business. New lands were settled in the West, new 
manufactures were starting up, new means of transpor- 



242 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Expansion of 
business. 



Speculation. 



Multiplication 
of banks. 



Land specu- 
lations. 



tation were coming into use. Trade was active. There 
was great demand for all forms of merchandise, and the 
market was buoyant. Cotton was six cents a pound in 
1830, and twenty cents in 1835. Imports and exports 
were large. Everywhere men were making money. 
And whoever had capital, whether his own or borrowed, 
was sure of great profits. 

As soon as this was clear, a mania for speculation set 
in. Money was borrowed and invested in all sorts of en- 
terprises. The credit of the United States was good, and 
so capital poured in from Europe. In the West buying 
and selling land became a craze. So many towns were 
projected on the prairie that in Illinois it was said there 
was alarm lest there would not be room left for farms. 

To provide capital for this eager speculation a multi- 
tude of banks sprang into existence. Between 1830 
and 1837 their number was doubled, their nominal 
capital rose from $61,000,000 to $291,000,000, their 
loans expanded from $200,000,000 to $525,000,000, 
their paper currency from $61,000,000 to $149,000,000. 
The specie back of all this paper in 1837 was $38,000,000. 

Jackson's finance policy had stimulated this process. 
Coteries of speculators organized banks, under the loose 
laws of the states, each hoping to get a share of the 
federal deposits. Then when the treasury balance was 
placed in the pet banks, the instructions of the secretary 
were that one purpose was " to afford increased facilities 
to commerce" — in other words, intimating that the pub- 
lic money ought to be lent freely. And this advice was 
followed literally. 

The public land was sold usually at a dollar and a 
quarter an acre. Speculators would borrow paper cur- 
rency at a bank and with it buy land. The land officer 
would then deposit the funds in the bank, from which the 



The Panic of iSjy. 243 

speculator would again borrow them for a similar pur- 
pose. And so the "money" went on its rounds, land 
changing hands frequently at a constantly inflated price, 
and the speculators doing business on borrowed capital. 
In 1836 President Jackson became alarmed at the 
paper in which the government was being paid for its The specie 

i^ ^ <^ _ . circular. 

land, and caused the famous ' ' specie circular ' ' to be 
issued. By this the secretary of the treasury ordered 
land officers to receive no money but coin. Thus the 
speculators were at once embarrassed, as the supply of 
specie was limited. 

This embarrassment was increased in 1837 by the dis- 
tribution of the surplus among the states. The act of Distribution of 

the surplus. 

Congress provided that all government drafts should be 
paid in specie. So when the drafts were issued for the 
first installment about nine millions in specie were drawn 
from the banks, just at the time they most needed coin, 
and were sent traveling among the states, and the states 
in many cases squandered this fund in public improve- 
ments which were never completed. 

The banks could not stand the pressure. They be- 
gan to call in their loans. People then began to fear for Collapse. 
the solvency of the banks, and suddenly everywhere 
there was a demand for money which could no longer be 
had. Prices began to fall. Cotton dropped from twenty 
cents in 1836 to twelve cents and eight cents in 1837. 
The English investors also tried to withdraw their loans, 
and the whole financial fabric, which had long been 
tottering, fell with a crash. 

The causes may be summed up in the general mania 
for speculation, the abundance of " cheap money" at 
the mushroom banks, and the wild financiering at the 
treasury of the United States. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE WHIG TRIUMPH. 



Leaders of the 
Whigs. 

Henry Clay. 



His eloquence. 



References. — Schouler ; Schurz : Clay and Ji'ebster ; 
Weed : Autobiography ; Benton : Thirty J 'cars. 

Few political leaders have had so absolute control of 
the hearts of men as did Henry Clay. Genial, warm- 
hearted, always pro- 
foundly courteous to 
high and low, young 
and old, few could 
resist the charm of 
his presence. But 
the secret of his 
greatest power lay 
in his matchless ora- 
tory. A popular 
audience was 
wrought up to the 
highest pitch of ex- 
cited feeling by his 
glowing periods. 
Tall and command- 
ing in person, he 
was endowed with a 
henrv ci.av. voice which was a 

Born, 1777 ; died, 1S52. Admitted to the bar, 1797 ; ... 

U. S. senator from Kentucky, 1806; speaker of SUpcrb muSlCal in- 
lower house of Kentucky legislature, 1S07; U. S. 

senator from Kentucky, 1809-11 ; member of Strument. And it 
Congress and speaker, 1811-25; secretary of 

state, 1825-9; U. S. senator from Kentucky, waS aS mUch the 
1831-42, and 1849-52 ; candidate for the presi- . 

dency, 1S24, 1S32, 1844. mUSlC of hlS VOlCC aS 

the music of his periods that charmed his auditors. When 

244 




The WJiig Triumph. 



245 



he addressed his farewell to the Senate in 1843, the sen- 
ators were left in no mood to do business, but at once ad- 
journed by unanimous vote. ' ' Clay ' s leaving Congress, 
wrote John J. Crittenden, " was something like the soul's 

leaving the 

body." Indeed, 
with the excep- 
tion of his ab- 
sence while 
serving on the 
commission of 
peace at Ghent, 
Clay had been 
continuously in 
Congress since 
1811. 

Another great 
Whig chief was 
Daniel Web- 
ster. He never 
won hearts like 
Henry Clay. 
He never had a 
devoted follow- 
ing in every state of the Union. Clay was an orator 
above anything else. Webster was first of all a great 
constitutional lawyer. Clay could persuade a jury to 
believe any alleged facts he pleased. Webster marshaled 
his view of law in so luminous and cogent a form as to 
compel assent from the bench. 

Both of these great Whig leaders longed for the presi- 
dency. And it was the bitter disappointment of the life- 
time of each that this ambition was balked. Clay was 
an active candidate more than once. He could have 



I 


1 


w^ 






-A 



Clay in Con- 
gress. 



Daniel Webster. 
Born, 1782; died, 1S52. Educated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege; lawyer; member of Congress, 1813-17, and 
1823-7; U. S. senator from Massachusetts, 1S27-41 ; 
secretary of state, 1841-3; U. S. senator, 1845-50 ; sec- 
retary of state, 1S50-2. 



Daniel Webster. 



Presidential 
ambitions. 



246 The Growth of the American Nation. 

been elected in 1840 and was nearly successful in 1844. 
Webster was always at an immeasurable distance from 
the goal. He lost the only chance he ever had when he 
refused the nomination for vice-president on the ticket 
with Taylor in 1848. 

The key to Clay's political course was his intense 
Clay's ideas. national patriotism. It was this which led to his urging 
the war against English insolence in 1812. His desire 
for a protective tariff was primarily in the hope of estab- 
lishing American industrial independence. He had 
smarted too long under British tyranny not to long to 
be free from it at any cost — a feeling, indeed, which was 
shared by Jefferson and Madison, and most of the Re- 
publican leaders. Clay's championship of the Spanish 
American republics came from his sympathy with their 

The American _ ^ _ _ j x. j 

System." American aspirations for freedom from European control, 

as well as from his ambition that his own country should 
take the lead in the western hemisphere. Internal im- 
provements and a national bank he favored because he be- 
lieved that they would materially strengthen the republic. 
In his efforts for the compromise of dangerous disputes 
in 1 82 1, in 1833, and finally in 1850, we see again his 
anxiety to preserve the union of the states at any cost. 
The integrity and power and glory of the nation were 
the objects nearest his heart. 

Webster, too, was a thorough nationalist. With his 

Webster 3. 

nationalist. mighty logic he showed that the constitution meant a 

nation, not a temporary partnership. Webster in the 

Senate and Marshall on the bench shared the renown of 

being the great expounders of the federal organic law. 

In New York there had 8:rown up a strong Whig or- 

The New York . . . . 

Whigs. ganization. After the disappearance of the Federalist 

party the Republicans had divided into factions which 
quarreled with the rancor which has always character- 



The Whig Tj-iumph. 



247 



The Anti- 
Masons. 



ized the politics of that state. In 1826 an excitement 
over the alleged murder by Free Masons of a treacherous 
member of their order gave rise to a whirlwind of oppo- 
sition against the venerable society. The excitement 
went into politics. The "Albanv reG;cncy" was a ring 
of politicians who 
managed the 
Democratic part\- 
in the state, and 
who in that way 
made many ene- 
m i e s . These 
Democratic mal- 
contents com- 
bined with those 
who were strictb 
National Repub 
licans and with 
the Anti-Mason> 
to oppose the re- 
gency. Out of 
this opposition as 
the Masonic 
question gradu- 
ally disappeared 
a new party grew 

up, and among its leaders, originallv Anti-Masons, were 
Seward and Thurlow Weed, the one eager for distinc- 
tion, the other for power. 

Another group of opponents to the Jackson democracy 
consisted of Democrats who for one reason or another ^^'^'s 
were at odds with the old hero. Calhoun quarreled 
with Jackson and was displaced for the vice-presidency 
in 1S32, and then for the presidency in 1836, by Van 




Willi AIM H. Seward. 
Born, 1801 ; died, 1872. Lawyer; governor of New 
York, 1S3S-42 ; U. S. senator from New York, 1849- 
6: ; secretary of state, 1861-9. 



Seward and 
Weed. 



Calhoun not a 



248 The Growth of the American Nation. 

Buren. Then, too, his nullification policy put him out- 
side the pale of the regular Democratic party. In the 
Senate he often combined with Clay and Webster, 
though he was never a Whig. South Carolina voted 
for presidential candidates of her own from 1832 until 

Ty'er iiDemo- 1 840. John Tyler of Virginia represented a wing of 
Democrats who opposed Jackson's financial course and 
who frankly joined with the National Republicans. 

To organize a coherent party out of these hetero- 
geneous elements of opposition was no easy task. In 
1832 and 1836 the attempt had proved futile. In the 
latter year the name Whig had generally displaced that 
of National Republican, as less offensive to any of the 
elements of the party, and as indicative of opposition to 
the tyranny of the one-man power in the White House. 
Martin Van Buren was the first northern man to be 

Van Buren, made president by the party of Jefferson. The Adamses 

president. ^ j i. j j 

had been, the one a Federalist, the other a National Re- 
publican. Every other president had been a southern man. 
With all Van Buren' s success up to this time, it was his 
fate to be in a false position. He is commonly rated as 
a smooth, supple, shrewd wire-puller. He was really a 
man of no small ability and courage. Unfortunately for 
his reputation, he first was long absorbed in the dom- 
inating personality of Jackson, and then met at the out- 
set of his independent career by the great financial dis- 
aster, of which he did little of the sowing and much of 
the reaping. 

The general paralysis of business and the threatened 
Special session bankruptcy of the treasury of the United States seemed 
1837. ' to call imperatively for a special session of Congress, 

and accordingly, after some hesitation, the ]:)resident is- 
sued his summons for .September. 

The president's message was a disappointment to 



The Whig Triumph. 



249 



message. 



The " sub- 
treasurv." 



many. He took the ground that it was not the duty of President's 
the government to help people out of their business 
difficulties. He thought that a sound constitutional cur- 
rency should be provided — by this he meant specie — 
and especially that the treasury should be protected. To 
attain these ends his chief recommendation was a com- 
plete divorce of the government and the banks — in 
other words, that the federal treasury should collect, 
keep, and exchange its own funds, on a specie basis. 
This was the so- 
called ' ' sub-treas- 
ury" plan. It was 
a very sensible idea, 
and is now an es- 
sential part of our 
national system of 
finance. The Whigs 
in Congress, how- 
ever, succeeded in 
defeating it for the 
special session. 
Treasury notes were 
authorized, and the 
p a y m e n t of the 
fourth installment of 
the surplus was 
jDOstponed. This 
last pro\'ision met 
with much oppo- 
sition in the states. 
Its receipt had been 

expected, and not a few states had spent it in advance. 

The fall elections of 1837 "^vere generally favorable to 

the Whigs. Rightly or wrongly, the party in power is 




Martin Van Buren. 
Born,i7S2; died, 1S62. Lawyer; member of New 
York State legislature; attorney-general of New 
York, 1815-ig; U.S. senator from New \'ork, 
1821-8; go\-ernor of New York, 1S28-9 ; secretary 
of state, 1S29-31 ; vice-president of the United 
States, 1833-37; president, 1837-41. 



Whig victories. 



250 The Growth of the American Natio7i. 



The results of 
the spoils 
svsteni. 



Von Hoist, II., 
355- 



I a bad year. 



always held responsible for business disaster, and it is a 
comfort to vent one's dissatisfaction by voting against 
somebody. In 1838 things were a little better. The 
banks of New York and New England and a few others 
resumed specie payments. Van Buren's second Con- 
gress enacted the sub-treasury plan — the only important 
work of this administration. 

By this time the spoils system had ripened its fruit. 
The collector of customs at New York was a defaulter 
for over a million, and his example was followed by many 
others, as far as their opportunities allowed. Nearly all 
the land officers were defaulters. The supervision of 
the service was very lax. The secretary of the treasury 
was quite indulgent to proved rascals. His ins;:)ector 
advised him, indeed, "to leave those in office who had 
already feathered their nests, since new officials would 
begin the business over again." The interference of 
public officials in elections was beginning to be almost as 
great a scandal. And the custom of assessing federal 
officers for election expenses had already begun. 

Business collapsed again in 1839. The Bank of 
the United States, which had secured a charter from 
Pennsylvania, went to pieces finally. A general feeling 
had grown up that the administration either could not 
or would not do anything for business prosperity. The 
Whigs carried New York at last, electing Seward gov- 
ernor by ten thousand majority, thus giving a hard 
blow to the Albany regency. And in Massachusetts the 
Democrats elected Marcus Morton governor, by a ma- 
jority, however, of only one vote. People were every- 
where ripe for re\olt against the long dominant party 
of Jackson and Van Buren. Rightly or wrongly, 
the universal distress was generally charged to the 
government. And it was believed that the go\'ernment. 



The Whig Triumph. 



251 



Clay opposed. 



if it were in the proper hands, could remedy matters. 

The problem before the Whigs was, how to harmo- The Whig 
nize the loose elements of opposition into a coherent ^™ 
national party. 

Their national convention met at Harrisburg" in 
December, 1839. 
Clay confidently ex- 
pected the nomi- 
nation, and there is 
litde doubt that the 
majority of the del- 
egates favored him. 
Yet he was not nom- 
in at e d. Some of 
the keenest leaders, 
among them Sew- 
ard and Weed, 
feared the result 
with Clay as a can- 
didate. While his 
friends were de- 
voted, he had also 
many bitter ene- 
mies. It seemed 
better politics to 
choose an inoffen- 
sive ticket and trust 
to the momentum 
of the general dis- 
content. In order to 
compass this result, 

an ingenious and complicated scheme was devised. The 
convention was induced to assent that there should be 
no vote in the general body — that in the vote, taken by 




William Henry Harrison. 
Born, 1773 ; died, 1841. Educated at Hampden- 
Sidney College, Virginia ; entered United States 
army, 1791 ; served inider Wayne against the 
Indians, 1793-4 ; secretary of the Northwest 
Territory, 1798-9; delegate to Congress, 1799- 
1800; governor of Indiana Territory, 1801-; 
defeated Indians at Tippecanoe, 181 1; brigadier- 
general U. S. A., 1812, and major-general, 1813 ; 
recovered Ohio and Michigan from the British, 
and defeated British at the Thames, 1813 ; re- 
signed, 1S14; member of Congress, 1816-19 ; 
minister to Colombia, 1828-9 i president of the 
United States, 1841, March 4 to April 4, when 
he died. 



252 The Growth of the American Natio7i. 

states, the unit rule should prevail — that the state dele- 
gations should vote in secret — and that committees of 
conference should compare notes, also in secret, until 
there should be a choice. In this roundabout way 
it was managed to give the choice to General William 
Nomination of Heurv Harrisou, the nominee of iS'iS. General Harri- 

Harnson and -' _ ' _ _'-' 

Tyler. son had been inconspicuous in politics, and so had few 

enemies. He also had the merit of a brilliant military 
record, his victory over the Indians at Tippecanoe in 
181 1 and over the British in Canada two years later 
being inferior in luster only to the exploits of Jackson. 
For vice-president the nomination went to John Tyler, 
of Virginia, a state rights Democrat who had revolted 
from the Jackson rule. This again was thought to be 
"good politics" — it would conciliate many dissatisfied 
Democrats and would do no harm. The convention 
made no platform. A declaration of affirmative princi- 
ples would have shaken the discordant opposition to 
pieces. The policy was merely to attack the adminis- 
tration and demand a change. 

Clay was deeply chagrined at the news. ' ' If there 

sciiurz, II., 180. were two Henry Clays," he exclaimed, "one of them, 
would make the other president of the United States." 
He felt bitterly that his friends had been willing to 
make him their standard bearer when victory was doubt- 
ful, and now grudged him the leadership when prospects 
were brighter. 

The Democrats in the following spring nominated 

Tlie Democrats , r t-> \ r 1 1 • r • 1 

nominate Van Van Burcn, ou a platiomi declarmg for state rights, 
the divorce of the government from the banks, and no 
national bank. 

Then followed the picturesque and tumultuous log 

Political cam- cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840. The Whig 

paignofi840. r ;? t & 

candidate was extolled as a plain farmer, living in a log 



The Whig Triumph. 



253 



cabin and drinking cider as his beverage, rather than 
having a palace for a home, with gold spoons and 
gilded plate and rare wines, like Van Buren. The 
enthusiasm was tremendous and contagious. The pro- ^ national 

*> ^ frolic. 

cessions were measured by the mile and the outdoor 
meetings by the acre. Log cabins sprang up every- 
where — huge ones as places of meeting, small ones 
hauled in wagons. Transparencies and caricatures 
abounded. The rollicking campaign songs, like ' ' Tip- 
pecanoe and Tyler Too," fired the vast audiences with 




IMTED STATES 

i\ 1840. 

"^Inrt n \ an Buren's .\«lmini3tration; 

CD " 

Rou ofToias 



Y^'^<^--^'^1^^ 



fun and fervor. As illustrating the relative weight given 
to noise and argument, it might be stated that one news- 
paper devoted six columns to describing a procession and 
two columns to the speeches. The whole country went 
wild. Advertisements abounded like this : "The subscri- 
ber will pay $6.00 a barrel for flour if Harrison is elected, 
and $3.00 if Van Buren is." And people believed it. 



Benton, II., 205. 



254 



The Growth of the American N^ation. 



The Whi" 
victory. 



Death of the 
president, 
April 6, 1841. 



Tyler's vetoes. 



The Democrats made what head they could against this 
flood of excitement. They were puzzled, half amused, half 
frightened. They tried argument — it was wasted. They 
tried ridicule— it was laughed down. They tried imitation 
— it was too late. As Schouler says, they were outsung, 
outshouted, outlaughed, and finally outvoted. The great 
national frolic of the campaign was followed by a tidal 
wave at the election. ' ' Tippecanoe and Tyler too ' ' swept 
every state but seven, and were triumphantly elected. 

Great was the joy of the Whigs. At the inaugura- 
tion they poured to Washington in crowds, quite as did 
the democracy in 1829. The Whig horror at the spoils 
system seemed to be forgotten, and the " clean sweep " 
of Democratic office-holders began merrily. But a sud- 
den blight fell on the rejoicing and on the busy schemes 
for preferment. After only a month in the White House, 
President Harrison died, and John Tyler, an old-line 
state rights Democrat and a nullifier, became the Whig 
president of the United States. 

Congress had been called in special session for May 
31, on account of disordered finances. There was a 
Whig majority in both branches, and Henry Clay in the 
Senate sketched out a distinctively Whig line of meas- 
ures to be passed. 

The Sub-Treasury Act of the late administration was 
repealed promptly, and temporary provision for the 
treasury was made. Then came difficulty. Clay drew 
a plan for a new Bank of the United States, in the main 
following suggestions received from the secretary of the 
treasury, and the bill was passed. But the president was 
utterly opposed to a bank on the old model, and 
especially he held that no branches should be established 
in any state without the assent of the state in question. 
On this ground he vetoed the bill. A second bill was 



The Whig Triumph. 



255 



Tyler's 
ambitions. 



then drafted, in strict accordance with suggestions made 
by members of the cabinet deputed by the president for j^g^^.^^^^"" °^ 
that purpose. And yet this bill shared the fate of the 
first. The Whigs lost all patience. The caoinet, with 
the exception of Daniel Webster, secretary of state, who 
was conducting a difficult negotiation with England, re- 
signed at once, and 
Congress promptly 
adjourned. 

There is little doubt 
that the president was 
warped in his judg- 
ment by a little coterie 
of personal friends. 
Through their influ- 
ence he was led to 
believe that he was a 
second Jackson, and 
that the people would 
surely rise in their 
might to his support, 
and he carefully tried 
to give aid to the ris- 
ing by filling the fed- 
eral offices with his 
own followers. He 
suggested the query 

whether he could not be reelected twice. The term he 
was serving was Harrison's, and he ought to have two 
of his own — thus making nearly twelve years. But he fa"k^n^ 
learned at last that the Tyler party was completed when 
the offices gave out. The Whigs cordially hated him, 
the Democrats praised him — and carefully refrained from 
pledging him future support. 




John Tyler. 
Born, 1790; died, 1862. Educated at William 
and Mary College ; lawyer ; member of Con- 
gress, 1816-21 ; governor of Virginia, 1825-6; 
U. S. senator from Virginia, 1826-36; vice-presi- 
dent of the United States, March 4, and presi- 
dent, April 4, 1S41. 



256 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



The Whigs 
responsible. 



The Whig 
tariff, 1842. 



Protection 
again. 



As to his vetoes, Tyler can hardly be acquitted of some 
shuffling. Still, the plain truth is that the Whigs had 
made him vice-president with full knowledge of his po- 
litical record, and he, on the whole, was true to that 
record. 

No administration has had so little praise from political 
writers as that of Mr. Tyler. Whig authors have at- 
tacked it, Democrats have ignored it, and yet it must be 
admitted that as a whole it will compare favorably with 
almost any. 

One Whig measure of some importance became law 
in 1842. Under the sliding scale tariffof 1833 the treas- 
ury threatened to become bankrupt. By that act the 
duties were to be lessened each alternate year until June 
30, 1842, by which time the rate of twenty per cent was 
to be reached. The " slide " was arranged in a peculiar 
way. One tenth of the excess above twenty per cent 
was dropped every other year. Thus in 1841 four tenths 
of that excess had disappeared. Of the remaining six 
tenths, three were to go January i, and the other three 
June 30, 1842. And the result was to cut off revenue so 
largely as to threaten an empty treasury. Accordingly 
the Whig Congress passed an act which made revenue 
the main object, but which was incidentally protectiv^e. 
The duties were set to a scale between twenty-five and 
forty per cent. Thus the compromise of 1833 was re- 
pealed, and again protection appeared in a tariff bill, as 
in 1824 and 1828. 

Meanwhile the general condition of the country was 
gradually improving. The Whigs determined that in 
1844 there should be no mistake, but that Henry Clay 
should be elected to the presidency, and on a sound 
Whig platform. The party was drawn together. In 
1843 Webster resigned from the cabinet, and his friends 



The Whig Tritiniph. 257 

were inline. The convention at Baltimore in May, 1844, 
nominated Clay, unanimously and amid tremendous en- ciay for presi- 

. . . dent, 1844. 

thusiasm. " The Whigs, " said Webster, in his speech 
to the great mass meeting which followed the convention, 
"are to do over again the work of 1840, and to do it 
now, God willing, so that it will hold." 

But the Whigs were counting without their host. A 
new question then suddenly loomed above the national 
horizon — a question destined to cost Van Buren his nomi- 
nation, and Clay his election — a question before which 
the economic issues which now for thirty years had been 
paramount in the public consciousness, instantly 
dropped into insignificance. It was the question of the Anew question 
annexation of Texas. And this meant the slavery ques- 
tion, which for twenty years to come was to displace all 
others, and was only at last to be solved by a long and 
bloody civil war. 

Thus 1844 marks the close of one epoch of the growth a new epoch. 
of the nation and the beginning of a very different one. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Material 

questions 

prominent. 



Material con- 
ditions. 



AMERICAN SOCIAL LIFE. 

References.— Schouler ; Andrews ; Dorchester: Christian- 
ity iu the United States. 

The absorbing questions which fill the public mind 
have varied fi-om period to period. Still, thus far they 
had nearly all alike related to material interests. Com- 
merce, manufactures, agriculture, were at the bottom of 
our dissensions with France and England, of our succes- 
sive tariffs, of the war which raged about the bank. 
Deeper considerations than those which immediately 
touched the pocket, to be sure, urged on the Young 
Republicans to defend the national honor in 1812, and 
inspired Jackson to defend the existence of the Union in 
1832-33. Still, the "main chance" was the animating 
force in the new republic. Was this typical of American 
society at all points ? 

In truth, the social organism had many forms of life 
besides those which found expression in state or national 
politics. And this life was deep and strong. 

In a new country with virgin resources material de- 
veloi^inent was naturally uppermost. Here the fixed 
conditions which hemmed in European social classes did 
not exist. Every one had a chance to better himself 
The poorest laborer whose industrious hands were guided 
by an acute brain might hope for competence and com- 
fort. And at the same time there were not found those 
artificial bladders of entail and primogeniture which 
in Europe keep afloat so many who otherwise would sink 

258 



American Social Life. 259 

inertly to the bottom. To be sure, in the older regions 
there was somewhat of fixity. Old families in Massa- "oid families.^ 
chusetts retained for generations a reasonably comforta- 
ble estate. And in Virginia the broad acres descended 
from father to son as in old England. In that state the 
systems of entail and primogeniture were overthrown in 
1776, so that it was only by will that the great planta- 
tions could be kept together. But in all the new states 
there was substantial equality of condition. There were 
few great fortunes. There was little abject poverty. 
Everyone felt that his best friends were his ten fingers — 
and there was always enough for them to do. 

That aggregation of capital so familiar now in the form ^ 

°° ° "^ _ _ . Corporations. 

of corporations was just beginning to appear in the early 
decades of this century. Hamilton in the Bank of the 
United States pointed the way to the most conspicuous of 
early institutions of the kind, and banking was thus one 
of the first forms of corporate wealth. As business ex- 
jDanded after the second English war the inconveniences 
of partnerships, especially in the way of unlimited liability, 
led to the formation of corporations for other purposes. 
Cotton and woolen mills, railroads and turnpikes, as 
well as banks, were incorporated. And thus gradually 
the way was paved for the giant combinations which to- 
day overshadow the whole field of business enterprise. 

Society became thoroughly democratic after John 
Adams left the White House. Aristocracy was found 
only in spots. The dominant political and social ideas 
were those of Jefierson and Jackson. The right of the 
majority to rule became an axiom everywhere. And 
the minority to-day submitted quietly in the hope that Democracy, 
to-morrow they would be the majority. This is a lesson 
which our Latin American neighbors have found it hard 
to learn, and so in their lands the resort to physical force 



26o 



The Growth of the Atnerican Nation. 



Soop. Ji.f. 



Sohouler, II. 



Suffrage. 



oepp. .M5, .M-. 



Ins Ih'imi .ill loo Iri'quont. But throui^hout iho states 
oloctloiis h.i\o in the ni.iin hoon a suthcicnt safety-valve 
lor social olnillition. .Xttcnipts to thwart the will of the 
majority have iu\ul\- .ilw.ns rcieteJ o\\ the originators. 
In 170:? John J.iy w.is ilouhtless elected i^o\ernor of 
New ^'ork, but was eounled out. At the next election, 
in 1705, he was chosen h\' a roiuul ni.ijoritv. and was 
kept in oftice tor six vears. 

Peniocnicy in politics was hut the retlex oi the demo- 
cratic m.umers ot the conmumit\' at large. '"The 
English tra\ eler beg.m to ohser\e. and commonlv with 
more surliness than good humor, that his coach-driver 
was talkative and drank with the passengers, while the 
tavern keeper, instead of eringnng with obsequiousness. 
would accost judges and generals, fuuiliarly addressed 
perhaps, by some sounding" title in return. If one's 
horse slipped in the road, a halt-curious crowd gathered 
good natmvdly about to loose the breeching' and help 
the creature up : but when the rider tipped some by- 
st.mder with a shilling, and asked him to hold his beast 
wiiile he went into a neighboring" house, the monev was 
likely to be tlung in his fice. Perquisites could not 
pvnvhase for the guest at an inn the privilege of \ enting" 
his ill humor upon the waiters."' 

Nothing more clearly m;\rked the advance of demo- 
cratic ideas than the extension of sutirage. By the 
constitution of New York, adopted in 1777. a consider- 
able property qualitication was required of all \ oters. 
In iS^i this provision was materially changed, the 
suttV.ige being" opened to all male taxpayers of full age. 
And in 1S26 the tax limitation was eliminated, thus 
introducing" what we call uni\ers;\l manhood sufiVage. 
And this extension of the franchise of coui"se related to 
feileral elections as well as to those of the state, as bv 



■Imcrican Social Life. 



261 



the constilulion ol tin- nation the slates art- Iclt to if.^n- 
latc llu- |)ii\ilci;c' orsullVa^f at their own choice. And 
by the niidillc of the centnry uni\crsal suffrage was the 
rnle, and limitations other than sex, ay;-e, and residence 
were qnilc tht- exception. 

The i)eriod of the Revolutionary War witnessed a 
great change in tlu' religious condition of America. At 
that lime tlu' Congreg-ational Church was established 
by law in New h^ngland, and the I^piscojjal Church (/. c, 
the Church of I'Jigland ) in Virginia. Each was suj)- 
])orted by public taxes. In tlu' other colonies there was 
g e ne r a 1 religious 
frei'dom, although 
some form of Prot- 
estantism was ex- 
pressly or tacitly 
favored. But one 
of the llrst fruits of 
the war was an act 
t)f tt)leration in V'ir 
ginia whercl)y dis 
senters were per 
mitted to worship in 
their own way, and 
also were exempted 
from paying taxes 
for sup port i ng a 
church which they 
d i (1 n o t attend. 
This act was only 




?£j^'- 



KcliKioti. 



1776. 



St. Paul's Chapkl, New York. 

iMccted bv Trinily Parish, 1766. Washington 
immediately after his iliauKuration, in 17S9, 
piDceeded to St. Paid's for religious service, 
and hero he frccniciitly received tlie eom- 
imuiii>n. On to]) of the pulpit is found the only 
mark of rovalty left by the patriots in the city 
after the Revolutionary War— the Prince of 
Wales' crest, three feathers. . . 

Virgnua act 

temporary, and it was not until i7cS6 that it was made [rLdom,""^ 
permanent in the great act ft)r religious freedom which 
was drafted by Jefferson. And in 1801 the landed 
property of the former established church was ordered 



262 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Cooke, 395. 



The Protestant 

Episcopal 

Church. 



Congregation- 
alism. 



sold by the overseers of the poor. So bitter was the 
feehng of the other rehgious sects against the Episco- 
pahans that even the churches and their contents were 
secularized. "The parishes were obliterated and the 
clergy scattered .... and when Bishop Meade 
applied to Chief Justice Marshall for a subscription he 
gave it, but said that it was useless to attempt to revive 
so dead a thing as the Episcopal Church." 

The Episcopal clergy in general were loyalists, and 
many of them left the country with the British armies. 
After the war. however, the adherents of the old faith 
set to work to reorganize their shattered church. There 
had never been any bishops in America, all of the 
colonies being attached to the see of London. And 
a British statute made it necessary for any one conse- 
crated by English bishops to take the oath of allegiance 
to the crown. Accordingly the choice of the Connecti- 
cut clergy, Rev. Dr. Seabury, was obliged to resort to 
the non-juring bishops of Scotland, at whose hands he 
was consecrated in 1784. In 1787, the statute mean- 
while being modified, two other bishops were conse- 
crated in London, and thus the due succession was 
secured for America. And in 1789 a general convention 
of the church in the United States comprised the clergy 
from all sections, and the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in this country was definitely formed. Its progress for 
the next half century was steady and vigorous. 

New England was the home of Congregationalism. 
In Connecticut its churches were supported by general 
taxation, as was the case with the Episcopalians in Vir- 
ginia. But it was not until 1791 that an act of toleration 
was passed, and religious freedom was only finally 
secured by the new constitution of 1818. Connecticut 
Federalism was rock-ribbed, the sturdy little state 



American Social Life. 263 



choosing Federalist presidential electors as long as there 
was a Federalist party. And the Republicans only suc- 
ceeded in the elections by making common cause with 
all forms of religious dissent to substitute a liberal con- 
stitution for the old royal charter under which the state 
was governed until 1818. 

The stern Calvinism which was at the core of the 
Puritan theology had begun to thaw in the eighteenth I'nitarianism. 
century. By its close many of the Massachusetts clergv 
and laity were Unitarians in doctrine, although there 
was no schism in the church. This may be said to 
have begun in 18 15, in a controversy which raged for 
years. In 1825 the American Unitarian Association 
was formed, and thereafter there was a distinct line of 
cleavage between the new movement and the old ortho- 
doxy. Many of the Congregational churches went over 
bodily to Unitarianism, carrying with them their build- 
ings and other property. Harvard College, with all its 
great endowment, was also transferred. In fact, the 
overwhelming majority of the people of the state, *with 
nearly all of the best culture and intellect, had abandoned 
orthodoxy. 

Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists became firmly 
established in the states west and south of New England, nations.^""'"'* 
The Presbyterians were strong in New York and New 
Jersey. The Baptists, besides their original home in 
Rhode Island, spread through Virginia and the South. 
And the Methodists were found everywhere. The 
Roman Catholics had from the settlement of the colony 
been influential in Maryland, and their priests were the 
first teachers of religion in Louisiana and the Northwest 
Territory. With the influx of immigrants from Europe 
the old church greatly extended its numbers and power. 

The vears immediately following the Revolution wit- 



264 



The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



Infidelity. 



The great 
revival. 



Foreign 
missions. 



nessed a decline in religion. The various forms of in- 
fidelity then so popular in France were disseminated 
among our soldiers and statesmen so that few remained 
free. And the growth of French democratic ideas in 
the state was accompanied by an equal diffusion of the 
French irreligion. Indeed, the animosity which stanch 
Connecticut Federalists felt for Jefferson and his party 
was quite as much religious as political. They believed 
that he was an atheist. And to the prevalence of lax 
ideas in religion as well as in the state they attributed 
the undoubted coarseness and looseness of morals which 
characterized the closing years of the eighteenth 
century. 

From about 1799 to 1803 ^ great wave of religious 
revival swept over the country. It had its origin in 
Kentucky and Tennessee, where the rude vigor of 
frontier life was turned with passionate earnestness to 
religious feeling. Great open-air meetings were held, 
the beginning of camp meetings, and thousands of 
people were inspired with the new enthusiasm. While 
many of its manifestations were strange enough, yet 
there is no doubt that the revival of religion was accom- 
panied by a very real reformation of life. Drunkenness, 
brawling, profanity, disappeared in whole sections. And 
the movement spread to the East until its power was 
felt over the entire republic. 

From this fresh life of religion and conscience came 
a series of new activities, reformatory and humanitarian. 
Foreign missions in the United States as an organized 
force on a large scale date from 1808, when a cluster of 
earnest students in Williams College united for the pur- 
pose of devoting themselves to carrying Christianity to the 
heathen. Two years later, as a result of the efforts of 
this little band of young men, the American Board of 



American Social Life. 265 



Commissioners of Foreign Missions was formed. Other 
societies followed, and since then hundreds of mission- 
aries and millions of dollars have been devoted to the 
work of evangelizing with Christian civilization the na- 
tives of Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific. 

Temperance reform began in the early years of the 
century. At that time liquor was in common use Temperance. 
among all classes of society — not light wines, as in the 
south of Europe, or beer, as in Germany, but rum and 
whisky. And drunkenness was alarmingly prevalent. 
In 181 1 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church attacked the evil, and organized efforts followed 
in all parts of the country. A series of temperance re- 
vivals culminated in 1840 in the Washingtonian move- 
ment, which was \\\ its way as exciting and sweeping as 
the political campaign of the same year. It was esti- 
mated that 600,000 drunkards were rescued. But unfor- 
tunately the effects were not permanent, as at least three 
fourths of those rescued afterwards returned to their 
cups. 

The whole tone of society in the first half of the cen- 

. i-v 1 • Society 

tury was feverish and restless. Perhaps it was the restless, 
"growing pains" of the young giant scarcely yet con- 
scious of his coming place among the nations. At any 
rate, there was ferment everywhere. The most ad- 
vanced radicalism and extreme orthodox fervor were the 
marks of religion. Reforms of every kind were rife — 
reforms in regard to liquor drinking, dress, food, social 
organization, and e\erything else. Innumerable relig- 
ious sects were formed, each zealously pursuing some 
peculiar points of dissent. In 1825 Robert Owen 
founded a socialistic settlement in Indiana. He planned 

,.,,...^ , . . i- Socialism. 

this to be the beginning 01 a complete reorganization 01 
human society, which should burst what he considered 



266 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Brook Farm. 



Literature. 



Little produced 
in the colonies. 



Rise of an Amer- 
ican literature. 



to be the triple chains which held men in slavery — indi- 
vidual property, religion, marriage. But the experiment 
was a failure in every respect, and by 1830 the whole 
Owen socialistic movement had collapsed. In 1841 a 
number of people of very different character, such as 
George William Curtis, George Ripley, Hawthorne, 
Margaret Fuller, and others, tried the experiment of a 
farm community in Massachusets. But after a few years 
this experiment also failed. The same decade witnessed a 
revival of attempts to found communities under the im- 
petus of Fourier's ideas. Many settlements, "phalanxes" 
they were called, were formed. They had several thous- 
ands of people, thousands of acres of excellent land, and 
many thousands of dollars. And yet all of them failed 
and went to pieces. 

Amid this social unrest there was slowly forming an 
American literature. During the colonial period there 
was naturally little done in this line. The stern prob- 
lems of a new and hard material existence absorbed the 
energies. And the comparative isolation and narrow- 
ness of life would hardly stimulate to literary production 
on any considerable scale. Theology and law were al- 
most the only outlet for any surplus of intellectual activ- 
ity. And sermons, with theological disputes, were 
the main form of the permanent record of American 
thought. Those who had a taste for reading and 
study filled the shelves of their libraries with English 
books. 

Shakspere and Addison and Pope were the common 
property of the Old World and the New. The revo- 
lutionary period generated intense political thinking, 
thus affording a \\^\\ means of expression. The news- 
papers, growing in influence, were the record of much 
of this. And political tracts multiplied like the sands of 



American Social Life. 267 



the sea-shore. But as the national hfe broadened after 
the War of 18 12, its varying phases afforded far greater 
material for literary industry, while its increasing energy 
and richness generated the intellectual unrest which 
must find its expression in literary form. Irving, the 
polished narrator and delicate humorist, Bryant, earliest American 

■* _ _ •' authors. 

of American singers and seers. Cooper, creator of distinc- 
tively American fiction — these were of the first vintage of 
the new intellect. In the decade which preceded the cam- 
paign of ' 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too, ' ' new names became 
household words. Longfellow, Bancroft, Prescott, were 
already famous. Emerson was the prophet of the new 
philosophy of religion and life — a philosophy which was 
essentially poetry rather than science. And a young 
generation was beginning to create a fame which should 
be lasting — Hawthorne, Motley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
Longfellow, Poe, Whittier. At the same time the 
newspaper press witnessed the beginning of a transfor- 
mation which gave it vastly greater power as a social 
factor. In 1833 the New York Sun was founded, the 
first successful penny paper in the world. The Herald Newspapers, 
followed in 1835, and the 7)7'^^^y^^' was an outcome of the 
successful Whig campaign of 1840. All of these devel- 
oped new forms of gathering and presenting the news, 
and in their unique personality had a new and peculiar 
influence on the public mind. The Tribune especially 
was for many years identified with Greeley as the expo- 
nent of Whig politics and of all reformatory social views. 
Thus the decades between the peace of Ghent and 
the annexation of Texas were filled with a vigorous and 
complex life. Material progress, social reform, religion 
and philosophy, literature and learning, all occupied the taking form, 
widening public interest. We were becoming a nation. 
The first war with England gave us political inde- 



Final inde- 
pendence. 



268 The Growth of the Americati Nation. 



pendence. The second war gave us economic inde- 
pendence. And by the end of our Civil War in 1865, 
we had become intellectually independent. When 
Dickens first visited us, in 1842, his criticisms made us 
smart. Had he been much more severe in 1867, at the 
time of his second visit, it would have been received 
with good-humored indifference. 



End of the for- 
eign entangle- 
ments. 



A new life. 



The American 
System. 



SUMMARY OF PART IV. 

With the end of the long wars between France and 
England the United States ceased to be the only neutral 
power, and the importance of American foreign com- 
merce, as well as the constant recurrence of foreign 
difficulties, came to an end. Thenceforth the new 
republic was left to the orderly development of its ma- 
terial and social resources. The angry politics of the 
Federalist era passed away and there was a general re- 
construction of parties. Emigration to the West became 
very large, powerfully stimulated by the application of 
steam to transportation. Manufactures had grown to 
considerable proportions, under the impulse of the Em- 
bargo and the war. The active English competition 
which followed the treaty of Ghent was met by a series 
of protective tariff laws, and the disordered finances of 
the country were restored to good condition by the res- 
toration of the Bank of the United States. Henry 
Clay's American System included the protective tariff, a 
series of internal improvements for the benefit of com- 
merce, and the preservation of the American continent 
from European interference. The last point was em- 
bodied in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. 



Smnmary of Part IV. 269 



Factious opposition to J. O. Adams led to the elevation 
of Jackson to the presidency. He was very popular and Jackson and 

-' ^ . \ _ J i. r nullification. 

formed a well-organized political party. South Carolina 
was bitterly opposed to the extreme protective tariffs of 
1828 and 1832, and in the latter year declared these laws 
null and void. Jackson threatened coercion, but Con- 
gress in 1833 passed a compromise tariff' bill by which the 
duties were to be reduced gradually. Nullification was 
accordingly withdrawn. The followers of Clay and the 
various elements of opposition to Jackson united under 
the name of the Whig party. Jackson attacked the ^,,g vvhigs 
Bank of the United States, vetoed a bill for its recharter, 
and had the federal deposits removed from its keeping. 
Over-speculation aided these measures in precipitating 
the business panic of 1837. Jackson's successor. Van 
Buren, was overwhelmed in 1840 by a political tidal wave Election of 18 
which carried General Harrison to the White House. 
He died only a month after his inauguration, and was 
succeeded by the vice-president, Tyler. He opposed 
the policy of his party, and vetoed Whig measures. A 
tariff act restoring higher duties became a law in 1842. 
Meanwhile American society had been growing more 
complex in every way. Material wealth was increasing, u°uon'.^^°" 
while moral and intellectual forces were becoming more 
powerful. Crude reforms of all kinds were set on foot, 
and the deeper consciousness of the nation found ex- 
pression in the beginnings of a distinctive literature. 
The results of colonial dependence were fading away. 



PART V. 
SLAVERY AND STATE RIGHTS. 




Abraham Lincoln. 



PART V-SLAVERY AND STATE RIGHTS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

References. — Bancroft ; McMaster ; Schouler ; Von Hoist ; 
Greeley: The Auterica7i Conflict; Pollard: The Lost Cause ; 
Stephens : The War Between the States ; Wright : The Iiidiis- 
trial Evolution of the United States. 

The series of events which led up to the Civil War ^, , 

' Slavery and 

was compounded of two questions which had to each ^tate rights, 
other a relation w^hoUy incidental. One was industrial 
— it was a phase of tlie relation of capital to labor. The 
other was constitutional — it concerned the relation of the 
states to the federal Union. When Virginia and Kentucky 
in 1798-9 assumed the broadest ground of state rights, it 
was with reference to a subject — the Alien and Sedition 
Laws — which had nothing whatever to do with slavery. 
And the Hartford Convention in 1814 showed New Eng- 
land FederaHsts using, in opposition to the English war, 
the same view of the constitution as had served the Re- ^ . , 

State rights not 

publicans in 1798. In other words, strict construction necessarily con- 

^ ' ^ _ _ nected with 

of the organic law and a large conception of state rights slavery 
are ine\'itable whenever one section of the Union 
finds or fancies that its interests are antagonistic to those 
which control the federal government. In 1798 some 
states felt that personal liberty was assailed by the legis- 
lation of the party in power. In 18 14 New England 
saw its main material interests destroyed by a policy 
of hostility to England. In 1832 South Carolina be- 

273 



274 



The Groicth of the American Nation. 



jKMuicnt oil 
state rights. 



AlncAn sla\'er\- 

pvovod in tlio 
sexentceiuh 



Slavery in all 
the colonics. 



lioxoil ihat a protoctix o tarifl' was w holly in the interest 
of Northern States and was onlv a damage to the Sonth. 
In i860 the cotton states were convinced that their 
entire industrial organiz;ition was in peril at the hands 
<^{ the new party which had attained power at Washing- 
ton. So it is plain that tlie question of slavery and the 
question of state rights had. as has been s;iid. a connec- 
tion which was only incidental. 

Perhaps a more exact statement would be. that state 
rights, in the wide sense, had no necessary connection 
with slavery, while slavery, on the other hand, was abso- 
lutely dependent on state rights. It existed in virtue 
of state laws, the constitution gave the national goveni- 
nient no power to interfere with those laws, and the in- 
stitution could be protected only by the preser\-ation un- 
impaired oi the constitutional rights of the states. 

When negroes were first brought to Virginia, about 
1 61 9, slavery of inferior races was a recognized institu- 
tion among- civilized nations. Queen Eliziibeth gave the 
lionor of knighthood to the first successful trader in Aftncan 
slaves, John Hawkins. The last slave trader of Anglo- 
Saxon race was not knighted. He was hanged in New 
York in 1S61. The two focts illustrate vividly tlie wide 
difference between the world's way of thinking in the 
sixteenth century and in the nineteenth. What we abhor 
was three liundred years ago a matter of course. 

Indeed, so much was it a matter of course that slaves 
soon came to be held in all tlie colonies. The most 
serious problem which ticed the settler in a new land 
was how to pro\ide labor. Negroes were bought 
readily as a solution of the difficulty. And so it came 
about that when the colonies in 17 76 declared that all men 
are endowed by nature with freedom, in tnith negro sla\es 
were held under the laws of every one of the thirteen. 



The Missouri Compromise. 275 

However, conditions of climate and soil brought it it seems to be 
about that the system had but a slight hold on the north- ''"^out. 
ern colonics. And in all, northern and southeni alike, 
a general disapproval of slavery had grown up. Accord- 
ingly, when the revolt from Great Britain had put their 
domestic institutions in the hands of the colonists, they 
soon began to modify the slave system. In 1780 Massa- 
chusetts adopted a new constitution containing a bill of 
rights which declared all men born free and equal. And 
in a $uit brought under this provision the courts held 
that slavery in the state was thereby abolished. Gradual 
emancipation was provided within the next few years by 
several states — Pennsylvania in 1780, New Hampshire 
in 1783, Rhode Island and Connecticut in 17S4, and 
New York in 1799. Vermont in 1790 adopted a con- 
stitution which forbade slavery. The Southern States 
did not go so far, but nearly all of them took some 
action to discourage the extension of slavery — removing 
legal restraints on emancipation, and prohibiting the 
further introduction of slaves. New Jersey also followed 
this plan, and only South Carolina and Georgia were 
left as distinctly advocating the permanence of the insti- 
tution. 

In 1787 an ordinance was passed for the government The Ordinance 
of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. And 0^1787. 
among the articles of compact included was one abso- 
lutely forbidding slavery. It was this proviso which se- 
cured for free labor the future states north of the Ohio 
and east of the Mississippi. Indiana and Illinois at least 
would otherwise very likely have been slave states. And 
it is not easy to conjecture how history might have been 
changed had that been the case. The Ordinance of 
1787, almost the last important act of the Congress of 
the Confederation, was adopted by the unanimous vote 



276 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Germs of the 
Missouri Com- 
promise. 



Slavery in tlie 
constitution. 



Representation 
and taxation. 



Constitution, 
Art. I., Sec. 2, 
Par. 3. 



The slave trade. 



Constitution, 
Art. I., Sec. 9, 
Par. I. 



Art. IV., Sec. 2, 
Par. 3. 



of the States. But it should be noted that slavery pro- 
hibition in the Northwest was by implication permission 
for the Southwest. And accordingly, at a later date, 
Alabama and Mississippi were admitted as slave states. 
Thus early was there a virtual division of the national 
territory between the two forms of industrial organization. 

In the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the slavery 
question was one of the difficulties. Should negroes be 
reckoned as persons, the states which had many slaves 
would gain largely in the apportionment both of repre- 
sentatives in Congress and of presidential electors. But 
as it had been decided that direct taxes should be as- 
signed according to population, on the other hand it 
was of financial moment to the South that slaves should 
be considered as chattels rather than as persons; and for 
the Northern States these considerations were of course 
exactly reversed. These conflicting political and finan- 
cial interests were settled by the compromise, which pro- 
vided that in apportioning both representatives and 
direct taxes five slaves should be considered as equal to 
three free men. 

The foreign slave trade was another bone of conten- 
tion. The majority of the states wished to put an end 
to it by federal authority, as they had done already in 
one way or another separately, but South Carolina and 
Georgia regarded the further importation of this form of 
labor as essential, and flatly refused to confederate unless 
this point should be conceded. Here again a conclu- 
sion was reached by compromise. Congress was for- 
bidden to meddle with the slave trade for twenty years, 
and at the same time the provision for the interstate ex- 
tradition of persons ' ' held to service or labor ' ' was 
added. On the other hand, besides consenting that the 
slave trade should cease with the year 1808, the South 



The Missouri Compromise. 



277 



also conceded to Congress the power to control com- 
merce — a thing greatly desired in the East, and which 
the Southern States were reluctant to yield. 

By the tenth amendment to the constitution, adopted 
in 1 79 1, it was stipulated that "powers not delegated 
to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited 
by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, 
or to the people." In the light of this amendment, and of 
the constitutional provisions above noted, it is clear that 
the federal government could have no legal authority to 
interfere with slavery in the states. The importation of 
slaves from abroad might be forbidden in 1808, but that 
was all. 

However, it was commonly hoped and believed that 
in the South, as in the North, slavery would gradually 
die out. But this hope was doomed to disappointment. 
Two unforeseen events made so complete a change in the 
situation that, far from fading away, slavery sprang into 
new life. These events were, the invention of the cot- 
ton-gin, in 1793, and the anne.xation of Louisiana, in 
1803. 

Cotton had been raised in the South for more than a 
century, but the quantity was small, as it did not pay. 
The trouble was that it took too much time and work to 
clean the fiber from the seed. A slave working all day 
by hand could not clean more than one pound of cotton. 
Using the machine known as the roller-gin he could 
clean about five pounds. So the English factories were 
obliged to draw their supply of raw material from India, 
where the cost of labor was less even than in the Ameri- 
can slave states. 

But in 1793 Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts 
and a graduate of Yale College, happened to be in Geor- 
gia. Being of an ingenious turn of mind, he set to work 



Art. 
Par. 



I., Sec. 8, 



The consti- 
tutional status 
of slavery. 



Cotton. 



Whitney's 
cotton-gin. 



27 S The Growth of the American Natiori. 



Wright, 12S. 



Bishop, I., 556. 



An industrial 
revolution. 



The purchas* 
of Louisiana. 



to soK'e the difficulty, and succeeded in inventing' the 
machine since so well known as the saw-gin. It was an 
immediate and stupendous success. By its use a negro 
in one day could clean a thousand pounds of fiber. It 
happened just at this time that the successive inventions 
of machinery in Europe had enormously stimulated the 
manufacture of cotton cloth, so that there was a greatly 
increased demand for the raw material. And this demand 
the Southern States were now able to supply. The ex- 
port had been under 200,000 pounds in 1791, and still 
less in 1792. In 1793 it was nearly half a million, in 
1794 it was 1,610.760 pounds, in 1795 6,276,300. In 
1S59 the export was 1.386,468,562 pounds, valued at 
$161,434,923. The price also at the end of the last 
century was steadily rising. In 1790 it was 14J2 cents 
a pound, in 1792, 29 cents ; in 1793, 33 cents ; in 1794, 
33 cents ; in 1795, 36^^ cents : in 1799, 44 cents. 

All this was a great industrial revolution. At once 
there was a field for vast wealth open to the Southern 
States. From Carolina to Louisiana the climate and soil 
were favorable to the cotton plant, and land and negroes 
rose greatly in value. Soon it was estimated that an 
able-bodied negro was worth as many hundred dollars as 
cotton was cents a pound. It is quite plain what must 
have been the eflfect of this on the institution of slaver}-. 
If steps looking toward emancipation had been difficult 
when slaves had not been very valuable, how enormously 
greater must the difficulty have become when slaves were 
a source of untold wealth ! It is only just to remember 
that the states which thus for had freed their negroes 
had had no such problem to solve. 

The greatest triumph of Jefierson's presidency was the 
purchase of Louisiana. It doubled the national area 
and put at rest forever a dangerous dispute as to the 



The Missouri Compro^nise. 



279 



commercial outlet of the great ^'alley. But incidentally 
it greatly extended the domain of slavery. That institu- 
tion was recognized by the laws of France and Spain, so 
that when Louisiana came under our flag it came as slave 
territory. And it was stipulated in the treaty of cession 
that the inhabitants of the ceded territory should be pro- 
tected in the enjoyment of their lil)erty, property, and 
religion. Among their property were negro slaves. 
And when the state of Louisiana was admitted to the 
Union, in 1812, it was a slave state, as a matter of course. 
But when new states should come to be formed from the 
remainder of the French purchase, should they also be 




Louisiana a 
slave state. 



State Capitol Building, Raleigh, North Carolina. 

slave States ? It must not be forgotten that slavery al- 
ready existed there. The territorial laws both of Mis- Missouri and 

1 A 1 • J ^ J Arkansas slave 

souri and Arkansas recognized negroes as property, and territories, 
these laws were made valid by act of Congress. 

Little thought seems to have been given to the sub- 
ject until iSiS, when Missouri applied to Congress for 



28o The Growth of the American Nation. 



Aprils, 1818. 



Maine and 
Missouri. 



The Thomas 
compromise, 

1820. 



Bitterness of 
the contest. 



admission ius a state. A bill for that purpose was intro- 
duced in the House, and was sent up to the Senate with 
an amendment, moved by Tallmadge of New York, 
which prohibited slavery. The Senate struck out the 
amendment, and the bill failed to become a law. In the 
next Congress the effort to admit Missouri was resumed. 
But now a new feature appeared. The district of Maine, 
thus far a part of Massachusetts, desired to become a 
separate state. The House passed a bill to that effect, 
which the Senate would not accept unless Missouri should 
be admitted, also, and without the Tallmadge proviso. 
The deadlock which resulted was only broken by a com- 
promise moved by Senator Thomas, of Illinois. This 
provided that Maine and Missouri should both be ad- 
mitted, in each case without mention of slavery, but that 
in the remainder of the French purchase north of the 
southern boundary of Missouri slavery should be forever 
prohibited. After a long struggle the House was in- 
duced to accept this measure, but only by the close vote 
of ninety to eighty-seven. The minority were all from 
the free states, while of the majority seventy -six were 
irom slave states. 

The contest in Congress over the above measures, 
lasting, indeed, until 1821, when Missouri finally be- 
came a state, was exceedingly violent and bitter. Our 
political annals had as yet seen nothing like it. The 
long-dominant Republican party was rent in twain, and 
the slave state members freely threatened the dissolution 
of the Union if the policy of restriction should be 
adopted. The dispute was the more alarming as it was 
utterly unexpected. Jefferson wTote to a friend, " This 
momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awak- 
ened and filled me with terror." It disclosed a radical 
divergence of view between the North and the South, 



The Missouri Compromise. 



281 



and an intensity of feeling of which no one had dreamed. 
Slavery, it was suddenly discovered, was not a moribund 
institution at all, but, on the contrary, was vigorous with 
a new life. The growing wealth of the cotton trade had 
done its work. The gulf states raised and marketed the 
staple. The border states raised and marketed the labor, 
and all alike were now growing rich from slavery. The 
section line, too, was sharply drawn. The southern 
members stood solidly together for slavery extension. 
The northern members were nearly unanimous for free 
soil. In truth, it was here that the Civil War was really 
begun. The first shot was the Tallmadge proviso in 1 8 1 8. 

In trutli, extension was a vital necessity for slavery. 
Should it once be hemmed in by a cordon of free states, 
sooner or later it. was doomed. All saw this clearly. 
Hence the ardor with which the Free Soilers of 1818-21 
struggled to keep Missouri north of the slave line, and 
hence the desperation with which the South strove for 
the other issue. The compromise was a partition of the 
national territory between freedom and slavery. 

Starting as they did from diametrically opposite ideas 
and convictions, it is easy to see that the sections were 
driven by the remorseless logic of fate to the issue of 
war. Had there been sufficient wisdom to see that 
slavery was behind the age, that its doom in the end 
was sure, that it was a national evil to be dealt with at 
national cost, the nation might have been saved count- 
less loss in blood and treasure and fratricidal animosity. 
A wise scheme of compensated gradual emancipation 
would have spared us all. But doubtless this would have 
been too much to expect of frail men. We were not in 
1820 a republic of sages. We are not that in 1895. 



Renascence of 
slavery in the 
South. 



Extension 
essential for 
slavery. 



The logic of 
fate. 



Garrison. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 185O. 

References. — As in Chapter XXL; also, Rhodes : History 
of the United States from the Compromise of 18^0. 

We have seen elsewhere that the two decades fol- 
lowing 1S20 were a period of intellectual and moral fer- 
ment. New ideas were rife in all fields of thought. Re- 
forms, real and imaginary, were turning up everywhere, 
and among all these uneasy motions of the public mind 
and conscience we may be sure that slavery was not 
overlooked. In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison estab- 
lished in Boston a newspaper. The Liberator^ devoted to 
advocating the immediate abolition of slavery. He was 
utterly fearless and in dead earnest. He compelled a 
hearing. And from that time agitation against slavery 
never ceased until slavery ceased to be. The turmoil 
which followed excited in South and North alike the 
most violent anger. And this was not merely because 
in the former section the institution was now so deeply 
ists^ ^^°''''°" I'ooted that it seemed impossible to tear it up without 
destroying society itself In the North the abolitionists 
were discredited by the curious assortment of " isms " 
which many of them had. All the fantastic and crude 
notions of social regeneration which possessed the 
" cranks " of that day seemed to gather in full force at 
abolition conventions. Such distinguished abolitionist 
citizens as Judge William Jay, the Tappans, and Whit- 
tier, the young poet, did not avail to rescue the move- 
ment from obloquy. Its adherents were socially ostra- 
cized. Their meetings were broken up by mobs. In 

2S2 



The Compromise of 1830. 



283 



of antislavery 
men. 



1836, at Alton, Illinois, the Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, an 
abolition leader, was killed. 

Among northern men of antislavery views there were Three classes 
three general classes. The radicals regarded the consti- 
tution as a pro-slavery document. Garrison called it " a 
covenant with death and an agreement with hell. ' ' Ac- 
cordingly the Garrisonians refused to vote or to hold 
office under the accursed frame of government. A sec- 
ond class held that slavery was to be attacked only by 
the ordinary political methods. They formed, there- 
fore, a party for separate political action, the Liberty 
party, and in 1840 cast for their presidential candidate 
about 7,000 votes. But there was a considerable body 
of moderate men who thought that the regular party 
organizations were adequate to prevent the extension of 
slavery. Its abolition in the states they did not seek. 
So they continued to be Whigs or Democrats. 

It was \'ery plain that the Compromise of 1820 gave 
to free soil a much greater portion of the territory bought 
of France than it gave to slavery. True, the balance 
was partly restored by the purchase of Florida from 
Spain, in 1821. But the treaty which secured this new 
territory at the same time settled the boundary between 
the United States and the remaining possessions of the 
Spanish king in North America, and in so doing re- 
linquished all claim to Texas. When the French owned 
Louisiana they urged certain reasons for declaring that it 
extended to the Rio Grande. Spain, however, insisted 
that it did not cross the Sabine. So when we bought 
the land we acquired a dispute, and in the treaty of 1821 
we relinquished our claim to Texas — this being, indeed, 
one of the considerations which induced the Spanish 
king to yield up Florida. 

But the fertile prairies of Texas were too near the 



Purchase of 
Florida, i82r. 



Claim to Texas 
abandoned. 



284 The Grozuth of the American Nation. 



American 
settlements 
in Texas. 



American line not to attract immigration, and beginning 
with 1 82 1 numbers of settlers crossed the border and 
made for themselves a home under the Mexican flag. 
Being from the Southwestern States they naturally took 
their slaves with them. But in 1829 the Mexican Re- 
public abolished slavery throughout all its territory, and 
this excited grave discontent among the American set- 
tlers. Ultimately they revolted from Mexico, and in 




Texan inde- 
pendence, 1836. 



Annexation 
desired. 



1836 declared their independence, and this declaration 
they maintained by decisive success against the Mexican 
armies. 

But it was not independence so much as annexation to 
the United States which the Texans desired. And in 
this wish they were supported by a large number of the 
American people. Mexico, however, had refused to 
acknowledge the independence of Texas. And so when 
one of the last acts of Jackson's administration was 
to recognize the new republic, Mexico felt no little ag- 



The Compromise of iS§o. 285 

grieved. The United States had repented long before Attempts to 
that Texas had been given up in 1S21, and more than buy Texas. 
once tried to buy it. But Mexico would not narrow her 
boundaries. In 1S37 Van Buren declined a treaty of 
annexation with Texas on the express ground that its 
acceptance would necessarily embroil the United States ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ 
with Mexico. When Mr. Tyler became president the ^""ex Texas, 
plan was again urged and he took it up eagerly. Cal- 
houn became secretary of state in March, 1844, and by 
April had negotiated a treaty of annexation. But the . ^.j, ^^ 
Senate rejected it. 

Then it was that the annexationists, strong in the ex- 
treme South, set out to bring their scheme into the polit- 
ical campaign of that year. Late in April letters were 
published from both Clay and Van Buren opposing im- 
mediate annexation. Very likely this was concerted 
action, intended to keep the Texas question out of the 
canvass. It was too late to prevent the nomination of 
Clay. But the Democratic convention did not meet un- 
til the 27th of May, and thus the opponents of Van 
Buren, who thus far was the only candidate of the de- 
mocracy, had time to muster a formidable opposition. 
A majority of the convention favored Van Buren. Never- 
theless the two thirds rule, which had prevailed in every 
Democratic convention since 1832, was adopted, and 
that compassed Van Buren' s defeat. On the ninth bal- Defeat of 

i Van Buren. 

lot the nomination went to James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 

a radical annexationist. The platform was conveniently 

vague on the tariff, but declared emphatically for the 

immediate annexation of Texas, and for the whole of 

Oregon as far north as Russian America. Oregon was 

the name then eiven to the land between the Rocky po"^ »"<? 

» •' annexation. 

Mountains and the Pacific, reaching from California to 
the Russian possessions. We claimed it all on the ground 



286 



The Groivth of the American Nation. 



The Oregon 
question. 



Election of 



of discovery and exploration, and the British made sim- 
ilar claims as far south as the Columbia River. 

The Whig platform was silent as to Texas and Oregon, 
and the leaders tried to turn the canvass to the old issues 
of the tariff, the bank, and internal improvements. But 
the Democratic planks of the immediate annexation of 
Texas and ' ' the whole of Oregon or none ' ' proved 
taking with the people. The Whigs strained every 
nerve to elect Henry Clay. But it was in vain. The 
candidate himself turned the scale by writing a letter in 
which he intimated that he might under some circum- 
stances be pleased to see Texas annexed. This was in- 
tended for the latitude of Alabama. But it served to 
alienate so many antislavery Whigs in New York that 
their vote, going to the Liberty party, gave Polk the 
state. His plurality was about 5,000, while the Liberty 
party polled nearly 16,000 votes, as against less than 
3,000 in 1840. And the electoral vote of New York 
made Polk president. 

Tyler interpreted the election as an indorsement of 
annexation, and took immediate steps to secure the 
glory for himself A joint resolution of Congress em- 
powering the president to annex Texas under certain 
conditions received the executive approval on the ist of 
March, 1845. And on the 3d Tyler's nephew set out 
for Texas with the official offer. It was accepted, and on 
Texas annexed, the 29th of December following an act of Congress for- 
mally admitted Texas to the Union. 

James Knox Polk had been a stanch adherent of 
Jackson. He was an austere religionist, blameless in his 
private life, stern and determined in all his ways. He 
came to the presidency with four distinct plans. And 
each of them he carried out with remorseless energy. 

His first plan was to reduce the tariff. Polk had car- 



Defeat of ciay. 



Polk's plans. 



Schouler, IV. 

498. 



Low tariff. 



The Compromise of iS^o. 



287 



ried Pennsylvania, always a protection state, under the 
banner of " Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff of '42." But 
the new president was a southern low tariff man. His 
secretary of the treasury was Robert J. Walker, of Mis- 
sissippi. And one of the landmarks of the administra- 
tion was the enactment of the Walker tariff of 1846, 
whereby the rates were reduced to about those of the 
Compromise of 1833. 

The second plan was the independent treasury. This 
measure had been 
adopted in Van 
Buren's administra- 
tion, and repealed 
by the Whigs in 
1 84 1. It was now 
reenacted, and has 
since then remained 
a part of our finan- 
cial system. 

The third plan 
was to secure the 
whole of Oregon. 
Had Polk succeeded 
in this, British 
America would have 
been wholly cut off 
from the Pacific. 
But in fact our title 
to the whole of this 
great country was 
by no means clear, and the administration wisely com- 
promised by running the parallel of 49° westward to the 
Pacific. "Fifty-four forty or fight," was the Democratic 
slogan in '44. We didn't get 54° 40', and we didn't 




Dallas of Penn- 
sylvania was 
elected vice- 
president. 



The independ- 
ent treasury. 
P. 249. 



Oregon. 



James Knox Polk. 
Born, 1795; died, 1849. Educated at the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina ; lawyer ; U. S. Congress, 
1825-39 '' governor of Tennessee, 1839 ; president 
of the United States, 1S45-9. 



Treaty of 1846 

Schouler, IV. 

504-14. 



288 The Grozi'th of the American Nation. 



California. 



Mexico goaded 
to war. 



Taylor's 
victories. 



fight. But an ugly dispute was put at rest, and on the 
whole in an equitable way. 

The fourth plan was to secure fiarther annexation fi^om 
Mexico. California in 1S45 was by no means the golden 
name it has been since '48. It meant a vast area of sunny 
land which was the home of the grape and of great herds 
of cattle. It was sparsely settled by Mexicans, and a 
few American emigrants had already roamed across its 
borders and established their rude homes. English plots 
were believed to be busy, and it would have caused little 
surprise had that benevolent nation, always land hungry, 
quietly raised the cross of St. George at San Francisco. 
But the fever for annexation was burning in the veins of 
all Americans. Florida had been bought and Texas 
annexed. Under the Missouri Compromise room for 
the expansion of slavery could not be found in the ex- 
isting territory of the United States. But if Mexico 
could now be cajoled or forced into ceding California 
another great area would be opened to slavery propa- 
gandists. 

There were plenty of pretexts for a quarrel with Mex- 
ico. The most convenient of these was the disputed 
boundary of Texas. That state claimed the line of the 
Rio Grande; the Mexicans only admitted the line of the 
Nueces. General Zachary Taylor was ordered to take 
military possession of the disputed district. This he 
did, and thus goaded the Mexican troops to attack him. 
Then Congress was able to declare that war existed ' ' by 
the act of Mexico. " In truth, had the American ad- 
ministration desired peace it is likely that reasonable for- 
bearance would have brought about a settlement. But 
it was war — and California — which Polk wanted. 

The first small collision of arms was followed by two 
sharp battles on the Texan side of the Rio Grande, in 



The Compromise of iSjo. 



Character of 
the war. 



both of which the Mexicans were defeated. Taylor then 
crossed the river and pushed his advance into Mexico. 
Meanwhile an expedition under General Kearney occu- 
pied Santa Fe, and Commodore Sloat, on the Pacific New Mexico 

^ ' ' and Cauforma 

coast, raised the American flag in California. seized. 

In the following year General Winfield Scott with a 
powerful army occupied Vera Cruz and cut his way to g^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 
the City of Mexico. Meanwhile Taylor had captured City of Mexico. 
Monterey, and had suc- 
cessfully repelled an at- 
tack on his position 
made with o\-erwhelm 
ing numbers at Buena 
Vista. 

Indeed, the war was a 
series of victories for the 
United States. Mexico 
was poor, distracted with 
revolutions, utterly un 
able to cope with her 
powerful neighbor. 
True, our armies showed 
great heroism in many 
trying circumstances. 
But, after all, Mexico 
was overmatched. Her 
soldiers fought with des- 
perate gallantry. They 
were defeated, but their 

honor was not lost. And citizens of the great republic 
can have little pride in a war which was aggressive in its 
inception and whose object was the spoliation of a weaker 
power. The Mexicans made what terms they could. 
They accepted the Rio Grande frontier. They surren- 



pp 


^IH 


-: 


^^^9l^^l 


!*" " ". 








" j^id^^^l 


HhB^'I^^H 


fl 


HHu^^^^fH 



Winfield Scott. 
Born, 1786; died, 1S66. Educated at Will- 
iam and Mary College; studied law; 
entered army, 180S ; served with dis- 
tinction in War of 1S12; major-general, 
U. S. A. ; commanded federal troops at 
Charleston, 1S32-3 ; commander-in-chief 
U. S. A., 1841 ; led victorious invasion of 
Mexico, 1847 ; unsuccessful Whig candi- 
date for the presidency, 1852 ; retired, 
October, 1861. 



290 The Grozuih of the American Nation. 



Treaty of 
Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, 1848. 



The new terri- 
tory and 
slavery. 



TheWilmot 
proviso. 



dered New Mexico and California, thus losing a full half 
of their national area. The United States, on the other 
hand, assumed the unpaid claims of American citizens, 
some $2,500,000, and also paid $15,000,000 for the 
ceded territory — for California and New Mexico were 
' ' bought. ' ' 

The land thus added to the republic was an imperial 
domain, second only in extent to the purchase of 1803. 




And, like that French purchase, this new acquisition again 
precipitated a dispute as to slavery. The Compromise 
of 1820 related only to the territory bought of France. 
Florida, like Louisiana, held slaves when it was pur- 
chased, and so, as a matter of course, became a slave 
state. But within the limits of the Mexican Republic 
slavery did not exist, and so California and New Mexico 
were free territory. Should slavery be introduced ? 

In 1846 President Polk had asked for an appropriation 
of $2,000,000 in order to "negotiate" with Mexico. Of 
course this meant California, but the bill for that pur- 



The Compromise of iSjO. 



291 




pose was amended in the House, on motion of Wilmot, 
of Pennsylvania, with a proviso prohibiting slavery 
within any territory to be acquired. This was a repe- 
tition of the Tallmadge proviso of 1818. The bill failed 
to pass. 

Eighteen hundred forty-eight was the year of a pres- 
idential election. The Democrats nominated Lewis 
Cass, of Michigan, and the Whigs again tried an "old 
hero" in the person of General Zachary Taylor. His 
military renown 
and the popular 
disgust with the 
war were relied 
on for victory. 
Again, as in 1840, 
the Whigs made 
no platform at all. 

The Free Soil- 
ers were dissatis- 
fied with both 
tickets. Accord- 
ingly they com- 
bined with a se- 
ceding portion 
from each nation- 
al convention, 
and adopted a 
platform which 
demanded that 
there should be 
no more slave 
states and no more compromises with slavery. Ex-presi- 
dent Martin Van Buren was their candidate. And again 
it was the Free Soil party that decided the result. They 




Taylor nomi- 
nated for presi- 
dent by the 
Whigs. 



The Free Soil 
convention. 



Zachary Taylor. 
Born, 1784; died, 1S50. Entered United States army, 
1808; served against the Indians during the War 
of 1S12; served in Black Hawk War; won brilliant 
reputation in Me.xican War; president of the United 
States, 1849-50. 



292 The Grozt'th of the Avierica7i Nation. 



A second Whig 
president. 

Gold dis- 
covered, Janu- 
ary, 1848. 



Sudden settle- 
ment of Cali- 
fornia. 



Andrews, II. 
31-2. 



California ap- 
plies for 
admission. 



Claims of the 
South. 



defeated Clay in 1844. And now they defeated Cass in 
1848. Taylor was elected. 

Meanwhile all the calculations of the politicians about 
the new territory were upset by the discovery of gold in 
California. This great e\'ent was not known when the treaty 
with Mexico was signed. But no sooner was the rumor 
spread abroad than at once there began a rush to the new 
El Dorado. People of every clime poured into Califor- 
nia, all intent on sudden fortune. Sleepy Spanish settle- 
ments suddenly became cities. The erstwhile silent 
port of San Francisco swarmed with shipping. The 
new population was a strange motley of saints and 
sinners, cultured gentlemen, shrewd business men, 
and swaggering black-legs. Order at first was main- 
tained by the ready rifle and the bowie knife. But soon 
the Anglo-Saxon instinct for government asserted itself, 
and law took the place of disorder. There were per- 
haps 15,000 people in California when the war with Mex- 
ico began. In 1850 there were over 90,000. And the 
production of gold was enormous. "According to care- 
ful estimates the gold yield of the United States, mostly 
from California, which had been only $890,000 in 1S47, 
increased to $10,000,000 in 1848, to $40, 000, 000 in 1849, 
to $50,000,000 in 1850, to $55,000,000 in 1851, and In 
1853 to $65,000,000." 

This new population of California was mostly from the 
free states. And in 1849 they adopted a constitution 
prohibiting slavery, and applied for admission to the 
Union. 

But now came trouble. The southern leaders, who 
had schemed for an addition to slave territory, saw 
the fairest portion of it slipping from their grasp. They 
demanded that they should be free to take their slaves 
into all the new territory, or else, as a compromise, that 



'I'lir ( 'i>iii/u i>iNis(- (>/ /Sf;o. 



J')3 



llic Mi;.;.(iilii liui- (if .V" .V »' .'>Ii'Uil(l I >c cxIcik Ici I lt> llic 

r.ii ilic. A«;.iiii, ;is ill iSiS J i , a Iniioiis (|ii,iii(l i.iiM'd 

ii) (OniMcss. Ai;,iin ihicals of .si'iH-ssioii wcic lied)' 

m.nlr. 'I'liis (lid not dislml) '/.Mharv Tavl.T. ll.'liad ;|/;;.),^,,';;,:;; ;',';,'. 

tlir S|)il il ol' " ( )|d lli.koiy," and was (iiiilc ic,id\- lo I'"' -I'l'i" 

ini'i'l loi ' f u i I II 

I Ol ( f. I* 11 1 I 11 I' 

W'liiv.s did 11"! 

:,laiid l>v iIk' pi'si 

dciil. M.in\ Willi 

\v i I !i t li«' Soil 1 11. 

TIk II 1 Iciii \' ( 'la\ , 

in Ills old aiH" li iic 

to Ins passionate dc 

\ 1.11(111 to llic I 'nioii, 

|)i o|)os('d a t iHiipi o 

misc. And al last 

VVchstt-r lirokc ^^i 

liMUH- ill a |)owi rliil 

s|K'fili advoialiii;; 

CO iici'ss i o 11 to I lie 

Soiiili. All tins the 

1)1 csidi'iil sloniK Ol) ,, ,, 

I ' Mll.l.AKI' 1' U I Mi>i;u. 

posed. ills |)|.lll II, ,111, iSoii; tllfd, iSy.i. l.uwvfi ; mfinlu-i- dI 

, . (..iiKK'SM, iS,u-5. lSy;-.|,i; vlii--i)ivsl(lfiil ..( 111.- 

was lo Ic.lXC I lie I'nllcl Stul.'s, iS.|.)-s(.; i.ivsl.U'Ul, smocfdin.i'. at 

, , , 111,- , I, Mill ..I I'uMilnil T.nliM, iS;„. .;. 

w liolf iiialln to Ihc 

proplc toiucinrd wliiili iiii-anl lit'c soil. l»iil in 

Inlv. iS.M', 111.' snoiid Wlii;; pirsidnit dud in olli.r. ('.'.lylssol''""-" 

riu- \ifi- prcsiiKiit, lillnioii', rrsriscd liis pi rdccr.ssof's 

poli(\. And ('la\'s iiUM;aui'S bcciiiu- law. Calilor- 

iii.i w.is adinillid as a inr stale, New Mexico .ind Utah 

Ten iloi ies w ere ori'aiii/ed without nientioiiol slaxiiv, 

Tex.u; was p.iid $ii),ooi),i u)o lor iM\ ini; up its sli.idowy 

cl.iiiii to ,1 laree p.irt i^( Ni-w Mexico, the sl,i\c lradi> 




W.I.sUm'-iviIk'I 
M.ii. h ■.p.-.-i 11. 



294 ^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. 



The compro- 
mise passes. 



The Compro- 
mise of 1850 " : 
finality " 



was forbidden in the District of Columbia, and a new and 
drastic Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. 

Thus was adopted the great Compromise of 1850. 
While it shocked free soil Whigs by the Fugitive Slave 
Act, yet on the whole the masses North and South were 
satisfied. The country was then abounding in prosper- 
ity. People were absorbed in business and were utterly 
tired of the whole slave question. In the North it was 
felt that there was really little fear of any more slave 
states, and that the whole subject ought to drop. In 
January, 1851, Clay headed a written agreement never 
to support for office any man known to favor a renewal 
of the slavery agitation. The Compromise. of 1850 was to 
be final. 




An Emigrant Wagon. 
From Philadelphia to Pittsburg, twenty days." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

References. — As in Chapter XXI. 

The decade which followed the meridian of the nine- 
teenth century was full of a vigorous and \aried life in characterofthe 
the United States. The population had rolled up to ^'^^ ^' ^ ^°~ °' 
twenty-three millions. The area of the republic had 
been enormously extended in the Southwest and its 
boundary had at last been settled in the Northwest, so 
that now there was a long Pacific coast looking toward 
China and Japan. Manufactures and commerce had fol- 
lowed the widening of agriculture, and the volume of 
business was such that the young republic was an 
essential factor in the world's system of exchanges. In 
New England and the Middle States manufacturing, so 
feeble when Washington was inaugurated, had become a 
giant industry. The Northwest was mainly agricultural, 
and in the South cotton was still king. The crop of 
1850 was estimated to be worth $105,000,000, and wealth 
was rapidly increasing on the cotton plantations. Ameri- 

. / . . American 

can shipping had taken on a new life after the depression shipping. 
caused by the War of 181 2, and had grown to great pro- 
portions. The American flag was seen on every sea, 
and American-built clipper ships were the wonders of the 
ocean for speed and skill of navigation. These were 
wooden ships, and were propelled wholly by the wind. 
The application of steam to ocean navigation was not 
made for some years after it had become well established 
on the rivers and lakes. It was in 1807 that Fulton's 

295 



296 The Growth of the American Natioti. 



steamboats. 



boat successfully made the trip from New York to Al- 
bany. In 181 1 the first steamer was put on the Ohio, 
and in 18 19 on the Great Lakes. But as late as 1835 
Dr. Lardner voiced the general sentiment of his day in 
predicting- that a transatlantic passage could never be 
made depending on steam alone. Two years later two 
vessels, the Sirius and the Great Western, relying 







A Modern OctAN SxEAMtk. 



1839- 



solely on steam-power, succeeded in crossing the At- 
lantic, and the next year Samuel Cunard made the begin- 
ning of the great fleets of Atlantic greyhounds by estab- 
lishing the line which is yet known by his name. He re- 
ceived generous assistance from the British government, 
without which the marked success of the new undertaking 
would hardly have been possible. After the failure of 
several companies which had tried in vain to compete 



The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 297 



Railroads. 



"with the subsidized Cunarders, the American Congress 
followed the same policy by making a mail contract with 
the new Collins Line, whose first steamers besran to plv The Coiiins 

, . '^ ^ ■' Line. 

between New York and Liverpool in 1850. But bad man- 
agement and bad fortune made this undertaking a failure. 
In fact, while America could easily compete with Great 
Britain on even terms in constructing wooden ships pro- 
pelled by wind, when it came to building steamers and 
especially to making them of iron, Britain had the ad- 
vantage, and so even before 1861 our superiority in the 
merchant marine was slipping away from us. 

But the improvements in land transportation were even 
greater than in water. In 1830 the first steam rail- 
road on any considerable scale was opened in England, 
and the example was at once followed in this country. 
The first lines w-ere very short, intended for some local 
use. But by 1840 there were 2,775 niiles of railways in 
the United States. A traveler could then go from Bos- 
ton to Rochester by rail, changing cars, however, about 
ten times. In 1850 the mileage of railways had increased 
to nearly 9,000, and their building then went on apace, 
about 20,000 miles being added by i860. 

The economic effect of the application of steam to 
transportation has been a transformation of the world, 
and nowhere has this social revolution been more marked 
than in the United States. All that was done by canals 
and steamboats in the decades just following the War of 
1 8 1 2 was done on a vastly larger scale by steamboats and 
railroads in the decades just preceding the Civil War. 
The wild land of the West was settled with marvel- 
ous rapidity. The market was brought near the settler, 
so that his corn and cattle and cotton were easily trans- 
muted to cash. Thus in the ten years after the Com- 
promise Acts of 1850 the republic showed an expansion 



The economic 
effects. 



298 



The Growth of the American JVatioii. 



The electric 
telegraph. 



The ocean 
cable. 



in every element of national progress. The population, 
twenty-three millions in 1850, was over thirty-one mil- 
lions in i860, and growth in population was a fair index 
of growth in wealth. 

Another valuable servant of advancing civilization is 
electricity. The first of its many applications to human 
need was made in 1844. Morse, the inventor of the 
electric telegraph, secured an appropriation of $30,000 
from Congress, and with these funds ran a wire from 
Washington to Baltimore. The first practical use of the 
new device was to report the proceedings of the Whig 
National Convention which nominated Henry Clay fo,r 
president. Construction was then prosecuted with great 
activity, and in 1856 the various lines were united as the 
Western Union Telegraph Company, In 1858 a cable on 




Cupynght, jSi^j, In A. F. Yules, Syracusr, N. V. 

The "De Witt Clinton" Engine and Coaches. 

The first steam railroad train in the state of New York, run on the New York 

Central Railroad between Albany and Schenectady, August 9, 1831. 



Results. 



the ocean-bed enabled messages to fly from the Old 
World to the New. This invention has greatly acceler- 
ated the advance of modern progress. Rapid commu- 
nication of intelligence is quite as important as rapid trans- 



The Repeal of the Ulissouri Compromise. 299 



portation of persons and property. Commercial methods, 
now that all the world jogs elbows, are very different 
from what they were in the slow old days when it took a 
year to hear from India. The modern newspaper,* which 
contains each day a history of the world for the preced- 
ing twenty-four hours, has become possible. And the 
railroads themselves are run by telegraph, without which 
they could not have reached their present high state of 
efficiency. 

But railroads and telegraphs were not the only triumphs 
of the fifth and sixth decades of the century. Other in- 
ventions were multiplying human power on all sides. 
Two notable ones were the sewing machine and the 
mowing machine. 

When Elias Howe in 1846 took out his patent for a 
machine to do sewing, it seemed as if women at last 
were really to be emancipated from their main drudgery. 
It has turned out differently, however. Instead of lessen- 
ing work, the machine has multiplied the possible num- 
ber of frills on a woman's garment. Still, its industrial 
effects in other ways have been quite as marked as ha\'e 
been those of the railroad and the telegraph. And by 
use of the mower and reaper farming on a large scale is 
now as easy as in the old days was the care of a iew 
acres of meadow and grain field. 

These are only examples of the many American inven- 
tions which in a thousand ways have multiplied human 
control over natural forces. It has been an age of in- 
vention. 

The act of 1834 regulating the currency had the effect 
of reversing the relation of gold and silver. Before that 
date, under the ratio of fifteen to one, gold had been 
undervalued, and accordingly had disappeared from the 
circulation. But the new ratio of sixteen to one over- 



The sewing 
machine. 



The mowing 
machine. 



An age of 
inventions. 



300 The Growth of the American Natio7i. 



Coinage Act of 

1853- 



See p. 113. 



valued gold, and so in turn the silver coinage either left 
the country or went to the melting pot. The result was 
that gold coin was in general use almost to the en- 
tire exclusion of silver. This fact in itself gave little 
dissatisfaction, but incidentally a great inconvenience 
was felt in the lack of small change. By the mint law of 
1792 the weight of pure silver in two half dollars or four 




Copyright , i8gi, by A. P. Yates, Syracuse, N. V. 

The Fastest Regular Train in the World, 1891. 

Empire State Express of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. 

Reproduced from a photograph taken when running sixty miles an hour. 

quarters was just the same as in a silver dollar. Hence, 
when the silver dollars became scarce the fractional coins 
had the same fate. In 1853 Congress remedied the 
difficulty by making the weight of pure silver in two half 
dollars or in four quarters 345.6 grains instead of 371.25 
grains, as had been the case before. These subsidiary 
coins were made legal tender for an amount not to ex- 
ceed five dollars, and the privilege of free coinage was 
withdrawn. By these provisions it was no longer profit- 



The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 301 

able to melt down small silver into bullion or to export 
it, and at the same time the danger of an over-abundancy 
of the debased coins was avoided. The subsidiary coinage 
became a mere ' ' token ' ' currency, as is usual among ad- 
vanced nations. 

The expansion of the republic had brought into the Admission of 
Union a series of new states. As the territories filled "*^^ states, 
with people they were one after another organized 
on the model of the existing states, and were duly ad- 
mitted by act of Congress. Arkansas came into the Union 
in 1836, Michigan in 1837, Florida and Texas in 1845, 
Iowa in 1846, Wisconsin in 1848, California in 1850. 
The decade before the Civil War was closed with Min- 
nesota in 1858 and Oregon in 1859. 

With the minds of the people thus absorbed in their 
abounding material prosperity, with the incessant an- 
nouncement of new inventions tending to make human 
industiy more efficient, with time and space and inert 
matter yielding on all sides to the brain and energy of 
the progressive American, it is no cause for wonder that 
the masses were inclined to take the Compromise Act of ^, ^ 

'■ The Compro- 

1850 as a finality, and hence to dismiss the whole slavery ?^'^f. ""^ \?>y>^ 
agitation from their thoughts. To be sure, the new Fugi- 
tive Slave Law was very irritating to the free states, and 
there was sullen discontent in the South at the poor 
prospect of more slave states. But apparently the con- 
troversy was closed. The national political conventions 
of 1852 both adopted emphatic resolutions to that effect. 
The Whigs continued the policy of nominating a mili- Election of 1852. 
tary hero, which they had found so successful in 1840 
and in 1848, this time choosing General Winfield Scott. 
But the Whig party was already dead, although its lead- 
ers were apparently unaware of it. Northern free soil 
Whigs were finally alienated by the obnoxious Fugitive 



302 The Growth of the American Nation. 



End of the 
Whig party. 



The Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, 
1854. 



Slave Law. Southern Whigs felt that the interests of 
slavery were safer in the hands of the Democratic party. 
And so Scott was overwhelmingly defeated, and that by 
a candidate of so little significance as Franklin Pierce, 
of New Hampshire. Scott carried only four states. 
Henry Clay died just as the canvass was opened, and 
Webster followed him to the grave a few days before the 

election. The death 
of the great leaders 
was only a prelude 
to the death of the 
great party. 

The slavery ques- 
tion in fact was not 
settled. And it was 
so sectional in its 
character that of 
necessity it cut 
through the na- 
tional parties. It 
destroyed the Whig 
party in 1852. It 
disrupted the 
Democratic party 
in i860. And na- 
tional political par- 
ti es again came 
into existence only 
when African slavery and its incidents finally disappeared. 
In the first Congress under President Pierce the slavery 
agitation, which in 1850 had once for all been put aside 
by the action of both the great parties, was renewed by 
the action of the leaders of each of them. Stephen A. 
Douglas, of Illinois, was the Democratic chairman of 




Franklin Pierce. 

Born, 1804; died, 1869. Graduated at Bowdoin 
College; lawyer; member of Congress, 1833-7; 
United States senator, 1837-42 ; brigadier- 
general in Mexican War ; president of the 
United States, 1853-7. 



The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 303 



the Senate committee on territories. And at the first 
session of Franklin Pierce's first Congress Douglas 
brought in a bill for the organization of the territories of 
Kansas and NebrasTca. Both these lay north of the Mis- 
souri Compromise line. But the bill proceeded ex- 
pressly to declare that compromise inoperative, and to Repeal of the 

^ -^ _ ^ '^ Missouri 

leave the question of slavery in the new territories and Compromise, 
in the states to be formed from them ' ' to the inhabitants 
thereof ' ' This was what Douglas called ' ' popular sov- 
ereignty. ' ' 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was at once ^. , 

'^ t The struggle 

followed by a rush for Kansas on the part of the antago- fo"" Kansas, 
nistic sections. The people of Missouri, being near at 
hand, made the first settlements, but they were soon 
followed by a tide of free state immigrants. The south- 
ern settlers seized the government of the new territory, 
and were sustained by the national administration. The 
free state men claimed that their adversaries had tri- 
umphed only by fraud, and refused to recognize the ter- 
ritorial legislature as valid. There followed several years 
of lawlessness and violence. But at last the free state 
settlers became so numerous that they could not be kept 
from controlling the territory, and in 1861 Kansas was 
admitted to the Union as a free state. The experiment 
of ' ' popular sovereignty ' ' was disastrous for slavery. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR. 

References.— As in Chapter XXI. 

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, 

Election of 1856. the free soil sentiment in the North woke to vigorous 

life. Democrats who reprobated the Kansas-Nebraska 

Act joined with the 
great body of Whigs 
in endeavoring to 
sweep from power 
the pro -slavery gov- 
ernment in state and 
nation. The new 
coalition in 1854 
took the name "Re- 
publican," and at 
the fall elections the 
Democrats lost the 
House of Represen- 
tatives. In 1856 the 
opposition was not 
yet united. The 
Republicans nomi- 
nated for president 
Fremont, the son- 
in-law of Thomas 
H. Benton. But the 
democracy, though it lost its hold on many important 
states, was too strong to be dislodged. The Republi- 




James Buchanan. 
Born, 1791 ; died, 1868. Lawyer; member of 
Congress, 1821-31 ; minister to Russia, 1831-3; 
United States senator, 1834-45 ; secretary of 
state, 1845-9; minister to England, 1853-6; 
president of the United States, 1857-61. 



Secession and Civil War. 



305 



The Dred Scott 

case. 




cans, however, polled over a million and a quarter votes, 
and the popular vote for the Democratic candidate, 
Buchanan, was a minority — a third ticket winning many 
votes. 

It had been urged in 1854 that the restriction laid by the 
Missouri C o m - 
promise was un- '\ 

constitutional. A [ - \ 

case was at that 
time pending be- 
fore the federal 
Supreme Court 
which the judges 
made the occa- 
sion of formally 
pronouncing an 
opinion on the 
disputed political 
question. Dred 
Scott was a 
negro, the slave 
of a surgeon in 
the United States 
army. He had 
been held by his 
master in the 
state of Illinois, 
and afterwards at Fort Snelling, on the west side 
of the Mississippi, near St. Paul. Being thence 
taken to Missouri and sold in 1838, Dred sued for 
his freedom on the ground that residing in free ter- 
ritory had made him free. The case was decided by Decision of 

r^ 1 1 /• T 1 T^i Supreme Court. 

the Supreme Court on the 6th of March, 1857. The 
court held that Dred had no case, as he was a negro 




A Typical Indian Chief. 



3o6 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The tariff of 

1857- 



The panic of 

1857- 



Political cam- 
paign of i860. 



slave, and hence not a citizen of the United States in the 
sense of the constitution. Of course that ended the 
case. But the court then went on, quite extra-judicially, 
to declare further that an act of Congress prohibiting 
slavery in a given portion of the federal territory was 
unconstitutional and void, and that there was no legal 
authority which could prevent a master from taking his 
slave to a territory and holding him there. In other 
words, the court held that slavery could be forbidden 
only by a state. Thus was the stamp of judicial approval 
given to the Repeal Act of 1854, so far, that is, as an 
obiter dictum may be said to have judicial weight. 

The year 1857 was marked by two other events not 
connected with the ominous slavery dispute. In the 
last month of Pierce's administration was enacted an- 
other tariff bill, intended to reduce revenue. It added 
considerably to the free list and somewhat reduced rates. 
Still, the bill was a compromise between a low tariff Sen- 
ate and a high tariff House, and it contained some feat- 
ures of protection. In the autumn came a new financial 
panic. It was largely the result of over-speculation — 
too many railroads, too many new cities projected in the 
West, too much debt piled up at a large interest in the 
hope of vast returns. And the lack of a safe bank cur- 
rency good in all parts of the Union was acutely felt. A 
swarm of mushroom state banks issued paper, which in 
many cases was never meant to be redeemed — and coun- 
terfeits were afloat everywhere. 

The political conventions of i860 met while public 
feeling was at a high tension. The Republicans, disre- 
garding the obiter dicta of the Supreme Court in the 
Dred Scott case, and flushed with success in winning 
Kansas, insisted that it was the right as well as the duty 
of Congress to forbid slavery in the territories. And as 



Secession and Civil War. 



307 



the Republican candidates there were named Abraham 

Lincohi of Ilhnois, an old Whig, and Hannibal Hamlin 

of Maine, a former Democrat. The Whig- party was 

now a mere reminiscence. But a group of excellent 

people, largely of Whig antecedents, alarmed at the 

threatening aspect of the times, nominated a ticket of An^'^}^ep^"'^'="' 

their own, John Bell of Tennessee and Edward Everett 

of Massachusetts, the platform being, "The constitution, 

the Union, and the enforcement of the laws" — whatever 




Democrats fail 



Executive Mansion (White House), Washington, D. C. 

that might mean. The Democratic convention at 
Charleston failed to agree on a platform. The radical to agree 
pro-slavery wing insisted on declaring it the duty of 
Congress to protect .slave property in the territories, 
while the followers of Douglas in the North would merely 
indorse the Dred Scott decision. The extreme southern 
delegates then withdrew, and set up a convention of 
their own. Both bodies were adjourned to a later date. 



3o8 



The Growth of the American Nation. 



Principles at 
issue. 



The Breckin- 
ridge Demo- 
crats. 



The Republi- 
cans. 



Election of 
Lincoln. 



But they could not agree, and two nominations resulted. 
Douglas was the candidate of one faction, and John C. 
Breckinridge of Kentucky, the vice-president with Bu- 
chanan, was named by the other. 

The campaign of iS6o was one of the most earnest 
and exciting in our history — far more so than the national 
frolic of 1840. In '60 men were divided on profound 
questions of principle. The southern people believed that 
their constitutional rights and essential social institutions 
were in peril. They believed that they had a right to 
take their property, slaves included, into the territories 
which belonged to the whole Union, and there to be pro- 
tected by the national authority. They were convinced 
that unless slavery could retain its political balance in 
the federal government the institution was doomed. And 
they had no faith that the rising party of free soil, the 
Republicans, would in the end refrain from attempting to 
abolish slavery in the states. 

On the other hand, the Republicans insisted only that 
no more national territory should be made into slave 
states. They believed slavery an economic mistake and 
a moral wrong. But they frankly recognized the con- 
stitutional limits on federal action, and merely hoped 
that if the institution should cease to grow it would 
gradually die out. 

The division in the Democratic party was fatal to its 
success, and Lincoln was elected. His popular vote 
was 1,865,913, as against 1,341,264 for Fremont in 
1856. True, the popular vote for Lincoln was a minor- 
ity. But so was that for Buchanan in 1856, for Taylor 
in 1848, and for Polk in 1844. But for the first time a 
president was elected on a distinct sectional issue as be- 
tween slave states and free states, and by a sectional 
vote. Lincoln carried every free state. The slave states 



Secession and Civil War. 



309 



were divided among the other candidates — Douglas car- 
rying Missouri, Bell Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
and Breckinridge the rest. Douglas secured three 
electoral votes in New Jersey. 

And as soon as the result was ascertained South Caro- Secession, 
lina took measures 
to secede from the 
Union. Her con- 
vent i on , duly 
elected for the pur- 
pose, on the 20th 
of December for- 
mally repealed the 

Ordinance of 1788 
whereby the federal 

constitution was rat- 
ified. And four days 

later the fiery little 

state promulgated a 

declaration of inde- 
pendence. 

This was the first 

act in the great 

drama of civil war. 

It was taken with 

joyous enthusiasm 

- — greeted in sister 

states with firing of 

cannon and ringing 

of bells. But in fact it ushered in not the founding of a 

great southern empire which should girdle the Gulf of 
Mexico with its dominions and should rule the world 
with its staple. It was the beginning of woes for the 
South and for the nation. It meant four years of bloody 




Its real mean- 
'iig- 



Jefferson Davis. 
Born iSoS; died, 1889. Graduated at West Point, 
1828 • resigned from army, 1835 \ married the 
daughter of Zacharv Tavlor ; member of Con- 
gress 1845-6; colonel, Mississippi volunteers, 
in Mexican War ; United States senator, 1847-51 
and 1857-61 ; secretary of war, 1S53-7 ; presi- 
dent of Confederate States, 1861-5. 



3IO The Growth of the American Nation. 



Results of the 
action at 
Sumter. 



Attitude of the 
North. 



war. It meant the fall of slavery itself, the destruction 
of southern prosperity, the sacriiice of more than half a 
million lives. And it meant the utter and ruinous fail- 
ure of the brilliant schemes and dreams of the secession 
leaders. 

The shot which in the early morning of April 12, 1861, 
was fired at Fort Sumter was the signal gun of a new 
epoch in the national life. It reduced to a single sharp 
issue — the preservation of the Union and the supremacy 
of the constitution — all the tangle of disputes for which 
slavery was responsible. In its issue it settled the Cal- 
houn doctrine of state rights as embodied in nullifica- 
tion and secession — it put an end to the uneasy attempts 
at still further increasing the slave area, whether by 
more ' ' acquisitions ' ' from Mexico, by the annexation 
of Cuba, or by filibustering raids in Central America ; 
it effected a sweeping industrial revolution by abolishing 
slavery itself And the reflex effects of the great strug- 
gle of arms in deepening and strengthening the current 
of national life were equally marked. The first emotion 
in the North when it was learned that the secessionists 
had actually fired on the national flag was that of pro- 
found amazement. Few had believed that the Southern 
States would really attempt a dissolution of the Union. 
And few were convinced of the danger even when at the 
opening of the new year ordinances of secession fell like 
the snowflakes. The border slave states tried to settle 
the troubles in the old way, by proposing a compromise. 
And probably a majority of Republicans would have as- 
sented to the proposal of a constitutional amendment 
forbidding any interference with slavery in the states. 
But when it was seen by the attack on Fort Sumter that 
the new Southern Confederacy was not a mere political 
curiosity, but was in deadly earnest, then amazement in 



Secession and Civil War. 



311 



the free states was changed to deep wrath. The North 
was effectually wakened from its lethargy. Party lines 
disappeared— Democrats like Douglas, Dix, and Dickin- 
son joining with Republicans to sustain the national gov- 
ernment in its task of suppressing rebellion. Every- 



The uprising 
for the Union. 




State C.\pitol Building, Rich.mond, Vircini.a. 

where flags blossomed out, and everywhere volunteers 
began to enlist for the national service. Washington itself 
was in danger, and militia regiments from Massachusetts 
and New York were hurried to its protection. And 
from every northern city and village the Union soldiers 
began to pour southward. 

In the Southern States the effect was equally marked, jhe uprising 
State pride and the enthusiasm for southern ideas swept 
all before them. Virginia and Tennessee and Arkansas 
seceded and joined the Cotton State Confederacy. Rich- 



for secession. 



312 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The " solid 
South." 



" Blood and 
iron." 



mond became the capital, and the Confederate armies 
were ahno.st in sight of Washington. Union sentiment 
disappeared in the South, as had southern sympathy in 
the North. It was the soHd South against the sohd 




North, and only by " blood and iron " could the issue 
be determined. 

The war at first was confused and uncertain. No one 
yet realized its magnitude. President Lincoln's first call 



The Civil War. 



Secession and Civil War. 313 

for troops was for 75,000 men for three months. And 

in higrh places it was actually thought that the insurrec- Crude ideas as 

^ ' _ _ •' ^_ the war opened. 

tion would collapse within that time. On the other 
hand, there was in the South a prevalent contempt for 
the "Yankees" — as it was boastfully said, they "would 
back up against the north pole before they would fight. ' ' 
Both ideas proved to be far wide of the truth. The 
South was deeply in earnest, and developed magnificent 
armies and most determined endurance. The Yankees 
began to fight without even starting for the north pole, 
and they fought doggedly on until in the end they won 
a' complete and crushing victory. Before the four years 
of warfare were ended each side had learned not to de- 
spise its adversary. 

It is not our purpose here to detail the military history 
of the Civil War. It proved to be one of the most 
tremendous struggles of history. The federal govern- 
ment had the great advantage of having a manufactur- 
ing and maritime population, and was able to draw a 
military and naval cordon around the Confederacy, cut- 
ting off its trade with foreign countries and thus gradu- 
ally paralyzing its material resources. The Union armies 
were long foiled in Virginia, commander after com- 
mander coming to grief before the genius of Lee. In 
the West, however, Grant and Sherman at last won 
their way to the front. The line of the Mississippi was 
opened. Sherman cut his way across Georgia to the sea, 
while the army in his rear was shattered by Thomas at 
Nashville. Meanwhile Grant, transferred to Virginia, 
found no light task. It was only after a year of cam- 
paigning that at last he was able to break the Confeder- 
ate lines and compel the remnant of Lee's army to 
surrender. In April, 1861, the first shot was fired on 
Fort Sumter. In April, 1865, the long agony of 



314 The Growth of the American Nation. 

doubtful struggle ended with the collapse of the Con- 
End ofthe federacv. Secession had failed, and the Union was pre- 

Confederacy. -' ' i 

served. But in the stress of the strife slavery had 
disappeared. President Lincoln in 1863 issued a procla- 
mation, wherein he used his war powers to free all slaves 
in insurgent territory. And immediately after the war 

Reduced Facsimile of a Part of the Emancipation Proclamation. 
(January i, 1863.) 

Abolition of closed the abolition of human slavery was embodied in 
savery. ^^ federal constitution. The institution was overthrown 

by the great political enterprise which was intended to 

preserve it fore\'er. 




Summary of Part V. 315 



The war of secession cost 600,000 lives and an incal- 
culable dmount of property. Had all the slaves been ofthe"war""^ 
bought at their full value in i860 and emancipated, it 
would have been much cheaper. But after all it was a 
far more fundamental issue than slavery which the war 
settled. The surrender of Lee was but the peroration 
of Webster's reply to Hayne in 1830. It was an author- 
itative interpretation of the constitution. And its mean- 
ing is that this republic is "an indestructible union of 
indestructible states. ' ' 



SUMMARY OF PART V. 

From 1844 to 1865 the public question which over- 
shadowed all others was that of slavery. Back of this, 
however, was a more fundamental one — the question slavery and 

1 , 1 T T • r 1 c State rights. 

whether the Union was a temporary coniederacy 01 
states or a permanent nation. Slavery existed in all the 
colonies, though it was much more firmly established in 
the South. Beginning at the time of the Revolutionary 
War the Northern States gradually freed their slaves. 
But the great development of cotton-raising in the 
South, caused largely by the invention of the cotton-gin 
in 1793, fixed the institution more firmly in that section. 
The original public territory of the United States had 
been divided between the two forms of labor — the 
Northwest Territory being devoted to freedom, and the 
Southwest Territory to slavery. In 1803 the Louisiana ^|.rJto°"°'^ 
country was bought of France, and the state called by 
that name was admitted to the Union, with slavery, in 
181 2. But when another portion of this territory, Mis- 
souri, desired to become a state, an attempt was made 
in Congress to include in the act of admission an anti- 



31 6 The Growth of the American Nation. 

slavery proviso. The dispute which resuked was setded 
The Missouri by the Missouri Compromise, whereby Missouri was 

Compromise, ■' _ . 

1820. allowed to retain slavery, but m all the rest of the terri- 

tory bought of France lying north of the parallel 
bounding Missouri on the south slavery was forbidden. 
The purchase of Florida from Spain, in 1821, added to 
the area of slavery. 

Texas, settled by American slaveholders, revolted 
from Mexico and sought annexation to the United States. 

Texas. ^ 

A treaty to that end was rejected by the Senate in the 
spring of 1844. The question was then taken into poli- 
tics. Van Buren and Clay were both opposed to annex- 
ation. Van Buren lost the Democratic nomination on that 
account, and Clay was beaten at the polls by the de- 
fection of free soil Whigs, who distrusted his firmness 
as to annexation. After the election Texas was promptly 
War with annexed. This led to war with Mexico, which resulted 

Mexico. . . ^ . . 

in the annexation of California and New Mexico, 
thus affording room for further extension of slave terri- 
tory. But the discovery of gold in California caused a 
sudden rush of people there, and they almost immedi- 
ately formed a state organization without slavery and 
applied for admission to the Union. This led to another 
bitter dispute in Congress, which in turn was settled by 

Compromise of the Compromise of 1850. This was intended to put an 
end to the slavery question forever. But it did not. In 
1852 the Whig party fell to pieces, and one of the first 
acts of the new Democratic administration was the law 
organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and 
repealing the Missouri Compromise. This opened the 
Northwest to slavery. There was a desperate struggle 

Kansas. between the two sections for the possession of Kansas, 

but the free soil settlers in the end prevailed. 

Meanwhile a new political party had been formed in 



Summary of Part V. 



317 



the North, with the cardinal principle that slavery should 

not be permitted in the territories. And in i860 this The Republican 

party. 

party, owing to a split in the Democratic convention, 
succeeded in electing a president. Then the slave states 
nearly all seceded from the Union and formed a confed- Secession. 
erate government of their own. The rest of the nation 
took up arms for the preservation of the Union, and 
there resulted a civil war of vast proportions. After 
four years of strife the national cause triumphed. The 
Confederacy was o\'erthrown, and slavery was abolished 
throughout the nation. The Calhoun theory of state 
rights was definitely set aside. The republic became in 
fact what since 1789 it had been in form — a nation. 



Civil War. 




The Lee Mansion, Arlington, Virginia. 



PART VI. 

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF IN- 
DESTRUCTIBLE STATES. 



PART Vl-THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF 
INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE RECONSTRUCTKn RI^PUnLIC. 

Rekerknces. — Andrews; Rlaine : Ticoiiy Vrar.s of Con- 
gress ; The Congressional Clobc. 

The great Civil War ended with tlic complete victory 
of the nation. The adjudication of war had decided 
against the right of secession and in favor of the su- 
premacy of national authority. And an amendment to 
the constitution, adopted in 1865, jjut an end to the 
legal relation of slavery in all the states. 

But the victorious government had before it a serious .j,,^^ ,obieni of 
problem. The Southern States had been conquered. 
What was now to be done with them ? Were they to 
be ruled as conquered territory ? Or were they to be al- 
lowed to take their places once more in the Union ? 
Either alternative was beset with serious difticulties. It 
had been the legal theory of the victorious party that 
the acts of secession were null and void. If this were 
true, each of the lately revolted states was still a mem- 
ber of the federal Union, and entitled to its full repre- 
sentation in the electoral college and in Congress. Ikit 
if this were allowed it would restore those who had just 
been in arms against the nation to a position of political 
power and would give them a voice in shaping the re- 
sults of the war. This was obviously out of the cpics- 

321 



reconstruction. 



322 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Early attempts. 



Death of Lin- 
coln, 1865. 



tion. To disfranchise the insurgents and allow the states 
to be organized by such of their people as were loyal 
would have been a desirable solution. But there were 

^ hardly any such 
people in the South 
unless the negroes 
were considered — 
and they were 
hardly of the mate- 
1 il for creating civil 
uistitutions. Still, it 
was such a solution 
that was first at- 
tempted. The 
mountaineers of 
West Virginia were 
not in sympathy 
with secession, and 
andr.u i..,N-u. ii'' 1861 they set up 

Born, 1808 ; died, 1875. Member ot Congress, a State government 
1843-53 ; governor of Tennessee, 1853-7 ; United . 
States senator, 1857-62; military governor of of their OWU, which 
Tennessee, 1S62-5 ; vice-president, 1S65; presi- 
dent of tlie United States, succeeding at the waS duly rCCOguizcd 
death of President Lincoln, 1865-9. . 

at Washmgton as 
the true state of Virginia. And in later years of the 
war Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee were recon- 
structed in like manner. 

President Lincoln, who had been reelected in 1864, 
had no vindictive feeling toward the South, and it was 
his earnest desire as soon as possible to heal the wounds 
of the war and to have the Union restored in a spirit of 
harmony and mutual concession. But the vast weight 
of his influence and of his conservative wisdom was lost 
to the nation by the hand of an assassin. Only a few 
days after Lee's surrender a violent sympathizer with the 




The Reconstructed Republic. 



323 



"lost cause" avenged its fall by the dastardly murder 
of the president. And the vice-president 
Johnson, of Tennessee, succeeded to his place. He was 
a very different man from the great-hearted and patient 
Lincoln. Where the latter might have led, Johnson 
merely succeeded in quarreling. At the outset the new 
president claimed to be following the policy of his prede- 
cessor. He offered amnesty to all in the South, a few 
prominent leaders excepted, who would take an oath to 
support the constitution of the United States. He then 
appointed a provisional governor for each of the seceded 
states, through whose 
agency a consti- 
tutional convention 
was called. " Only 
whites who had taken 
the amnesty oath 
could elect delegates, 
or themselves be 
elected, to this con- 
vention. At the in- 
stance of the presi- 
dent the convention 
adopted a consti- 
tution or legislation 
which forbade slav- 
ery, declared the or- 
dinance of secession 
null and void, and 
repudiated the Con- 
federate debt. The 
convention then ap- 
pointed times and places for the election of a legislature 
and a permanent governor. In a few months the gov- 



Andrew Johnson be- 
comes pres- 
ident. 




Robert \'.. \.\v. 
Born, 1S07; died, 1S70. Son ot" the revolution- 
ary general, Henry Lee ; graduated at West 
Point, 1S29; served with distinction in the 
Mexican War; resigned, 1861, and entered 
the service of Virginia ; commander-in-chief 
of Virguiia troops, and general in Confed- 
erate army, i36l ; commander of army of 
northern Virginia, 1862-5; president of 
Washington College, Lexington, Virginia. 



Andrews, IL 



The first plan of 
reconstruction— 
that of President 
Johnson. 



324 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Opposition in 
Congress. 



The second 
plan of recon- 
struction — that 
of Congress. 



ernmental machinery had been set in motion in all the 
late Confederate states, and in December senators and 
representatives from all except Texas were knocking at 
the doors of Congress. 

But when Congress met, in December, 1865, the Re- 
publican majority in both Houses developed immediately 
a strong dissent from President Johnson's policy. They 
did not trust the loyalty of the amnestied " rebels," and 
especially were they dissatisfied with the way in which 
the newly organized state governments were dealing with 
the freedmen. It must be seen that few communities 
have ever had a more serious question than confronted 
the Southern States at the close of the war with reference 
to the late slaves. The negroes had not been made free 
by a wise process of gradual emancipation, as had been 
done in the Northern States, but the ties which bound 
them to their masters were rudely burst by war and a 
sweeping constitutional amendment. Thus the mass of 
negroes, untrained, improvident, ignorant, shiftless, were 
suddenly thrown on their own resources. To maintain 
social order, to prevent lawlessness and crime, to insure 
against actual starvation and a relapse to barbarism on 
the part of the negroes — this was no easy task. Some 
of the laws enacted for these purposes provided for a 
system of " apprenticeship " of the blacks, which seemed 
little short of a return to slavery. And so Congress re- 
jected the president's plan of reconstruction. 

The congressional plan was on a very different basis. 
In the first place, a second constitutional amendment, 
the fourteenth, was adopted. This was intended to se- 
cure civil rights for the negroes. At the same time it 
provided for the repudiation of all indebtedness incurred 
in carrying on the rebellion, and excluded from public 
office certain classes of secession leaders. Then in 1867 



The Reconstructed Republic. 



325 



the lately seceded states were put under military rule, 
and drastic conditions were laid down as precedent to re- 
admission into the full rights of federal states. Among 
these conditions the most essential were the full enfran- 
chisement of the negroes and the ratification of the four- 
teenth amendment. In accordance with this plan gov- 
ernments were organized anew in the several states, and 
in June, 1868, the representatives of six were admitted 
to Congress — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, 
and the Carolinas. Tennessee had been admitted in 
1866. Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were 
more obstinate, and were not admitted until 1870. 

The various measures of Conoress which led to this , ^ . f 

*> Impeachment of 

result met the bitter opposition of the president, and the fo^® j'^l"' •^°'^"' 
most of them were passed over his vetoes. In the course 
of the quarrel Congress passed an act intended to limit 
the president's power to remove ofiice-holders. This he 
disregarded in the case of the secretary of war, and the 
House of Representatives promptly voted impeachment. 
But on trial before the Senate there was a failure to con- 
vict, se\'en Republicans voting with the Democratic 
minority, and thus pre\'enting the constitutional two 
thirds vote. Had a single one of these seven voted with 
the majority, the president would have been removed 
from his high office. At the election in 1868 the gen- 
eral of the victorious Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, 
was chosen president, and now again the executive and Grant becomes 

^ _ "^ president. 

Congress were in accord. 

The reconstruction of the Southern States under the 
plan of Congress meant negro suffrage. The blacks 
very generally voted and acted in a mass with 
the Republican party, as was natural. Their lead- 
ers were in general adventurers from the North, 
who saw a chance for prominence in the solid 



The " carpet- 
bag " govern- 
ments. 



326 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The freedmen 
as politicians. 



colored vote, though there were some southern whites 
who acted with them. But nearly all of the latter class 
either ignored politics in utter disgust, or voted together 
against the Republicans. The negroes found an eager 
delight in politics, and the reconstructed state legisla- 
tures were full 
of them. The 
result was what 
might have been 
expected. The 
Republicans in 
Congress had 
given the ballot 
to the negroes 
as a weapon for 
the defense of 
their freedom, 
and for the fur- 
ther purpose of 
keeping the Re- 
publican party 
in power per- 
petually. But 
the first result of 
negro suffrage 
was a saturnalia 
of ignorant and 
corrupt govern- 
The debts of 
Scribtier' s Mag- reconstructed states were rolled up to an enormous vol- 

azine, Mav, a 1 1 r ^ 1 1111 

1895, p. 569. ume. At the close oi the war these debts had aggre- 
gated about $87,000,000. The reconstruction- era 
added about $300,000,000, and a great part of this was 
stolen or squandered. And this burden was laid on a 




Ulysses S. Grant. 
Born, 1822 ; died, 1885. Graduated at West Point, 
1843 ; served in Mexican War ; resigned and entered 
business, 1854 ; entered Union army, 1861 ; colonel, 
2ist Illinois Infantry ; brigadier-general, 1S61 ; cap- 
tured Forts Henry and Donelson, February, 1862 ; 
major-general, 1862 ; captured Vicksburg, 1S63 ; de- 
feated Bragg at Chattanooga, 1863; lieutenant-gen- 
eral, 1864; captured Lee's army, 1865; general, 1865; 
president of the United States, 1869-77. 

ment, such as the world has seldom seen 



The Reconstructed Republic. 327 

society which had been utterly impoverished by a disas- 
trous civil war. 

There could be but one issue. Men of the Anglo- 
Saxon race cannot be expected to submit forever to the The reaction. 
dominance of ignorance and corruption. A political re- 
action set in. At first the negroes were terrified by the 
grotesque tricks of a secret organization, commonly 
called the " Ku Klux Klan." And from harmless tricks 
the whites proceeded to violence, flogging, maiming, 
and even death to those who proved refractory. Means 
such as these may be justifiable in desperate circum- 
stances. And there can be no doubt of the wretched 
misgovernment from which the Southern States were suf- 
fering. But such organizations inevitably fall into the _, „ 

^ *^ ■' The Ku Klux 

hands of the worst class of men. The Ku Klux was ^lan. 
no exception, and in time its machinery was used not 
merely for lawless violence against public enemies, but 
also for the gratifying of private malevolence and wanton 
cruelty. And when President Grant put an end to such 
proceedings with a strong hand there were few to regret 
it. The next means used for the overthrow of negro 
rule was a manipulation of the ballot system. And this 
was supplemented by all the methods of legitimate per- 
suasion. When men are confronted by a government 
which is intolerably vicious and destructive, one is loath 
to criticise the means by which it is overturned. But 
violence and fraud, whatever their justification for the 
time being, are demoralizing to the public conscience. 
And southern political life has not failed to suffer accord- 
ingly. This was the cruel dilemma which was forced The dilemma. 
on southern people by the rash experiment of unrestricted 
suffrage granted to a race whose only education for it 
had been generations of servile dependence. 

By whatever means, the reaction by 1874, only a half . 



328 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The reaction 
succeeds. 



dozen years after the reconstruction of most of the seces- 
sion states had been effected, was triumphant in all those 
states except South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. 
In the process there had been great confusion, and in 
some cases actual civil war. The federal troops were freely 
used to maintain the authority of the "reconstructed" 
governments. This was very distasteful to many Re- 
publicans at the North, and was among the causes 
which led to a considerable revolt from the dominant 




Election of 



Merrimac. Monitor. Minnesota. 

Action between the " Merrimac " and the " Monitor," March, 1S62. 

The first battle between armored vessels. 

party at the election of 1872. There had been scandals 
in the public service, as well as what the dissidents felt 
was oppression in the South. And so deep was the 
feeling of opposition caused by these things that the Lib- 
eral Republicans, as they called themselves, nominated 
for president Horace Greeley, the stalwart antislavery edi- 
tor of the Tribune, on an independent platform. Mr. 



The Reconstructed Republic. 



329 




Greeley's nomination was indorsed by the Democratic 
convention. General Grant, however, was elected by a democratic 

■' victories of 

sweeping- majority in the electoral colleges. Mr. Greeley 1874. 
died soon after the general election. In 1874, however, 
the reaction had not merely swept away most of the 
Southern States from Republican control, but it also in- 
vaded the North, and the Democrats for the first time 
since i860 had a majority in the Lower House of Con- 
gress. The political 
overturn was largely 
aided by the financial 
panic of 1873. 

In 1876 the electoral 
campaign was an extra- 
ordinarily close contest. 
Governor Tilden of New 
York, the Democratic 
nominee, carried the 
"doubtful" Northern 
States, New York, New 
Jersey, Connecticut, and 
Indiana, and all the 
Southern States except 
the three which were 
still ' ' reconstructed. ' ' 
claimed a majority, and 



j^***-^' 




Disputed 
election of 1876. 



Samuel J. Tilden. 
Born, 1814 ; died, 1886. Lawyer; governor 
of New York, 1875-7 ; candidate for the 
presidency, 1S76. 



In these three both parties 
from each of them certificates 
for both sets of electors were forwarded to Washington. 
As the Senate was Republican and the House Demo- 
cratic, it followed that a deadlock was quite possible. 
The constitution and laws did not clearly provide for 
such an emergency, and in the excited state of public 
feeling there was grave danger of an appeal to arms. 
The dispute was settled by a commission composed of 
five from each House of Congress and five judges of the 



The deadlock. 



330 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The Electoral 
Commission. 



The freed men. 



Supreme Court — eight Republicans and seven Demo- 
crats. The contests, including also a flimsy one in Ore- 
gon, were settled by the vote of this body in favor of the 
Republicans. And General R. B. Hayes of Ohio, the 
Republican candidate, became president. But he de- 
clined to interfere to support the local Republican state 
governments in the disputed states, and they at once 
fell. From that time the political reaction in the South 
against the reconstruction policy was everywhere com- 
pletely triumphant. And since then the white people 
have controlled all the old slave states. 

Meanwhile the most promising work for the freedmen 

^, was not that of the 
I politicians who made 
public officials of 
ignorant negroes, 
but rather that of 
philanthropists who 
set on foot larger ed- 
ucational enterprises 
for the improvement 
of the colored peo- 
ple. At Hampton, 
in Virginia, and at 
other places, such in- 
stitutions have been 
provided. They 
teach industry and 
manual skill, as well 
as letters. What the 




RUTHE3tFORD B. HaVES. 

Born, 1822; died, 1893. Educated at Kenyon 



College; lawyer; brevet major-general of r j j j i_ 

volunteers in the Civil War; member of ircedmen needed, Ob 

Congress 

and 1876 

1877-81. 



governor of Ohio, 1868-72, • 1 1 1 -^ r 

■ - viously, was habits of 



president of the United States, 

thrift and foresight, 
as well as the intelligence to maintain themselves by their 



The Reconstructed Republic. 



own exertions. In the dissemination of these quahties— 
and it must be a slow process — Ues the hope of the race 
for the future. 

Another issue arising: from the Civil War was settled in 

■^ _ _ The treaty of 

1 87 1. The connivance of the British government at the Washington, 
construction in her ports of the Alabama and other 
cruisers intended for the Confederates, and then at their 
sailing, had led to the destruction of our mercantile ma- 
rine. And Great Britain had quietly taken the place 
thus vacated by her rival. The American government 
had repeatedly attempted to induce Great Britain to 
make reparation, but in vain. In 187 1, however, the 
condition of British foreign relations was such as to make 
it expedient to have no unsettled questions with the great 
republic, and accordingly a treaty was negotiated for the 
settlement of the Alabama Claims, as well as of other mat- 
ters. The Alabama Claims were referred to a tribunal 
of arbitration which met at Geneva, Switzerland, in the The Geneva 
following winter. In 1872 this tribunal decided in favor 
of the United States, awarding $15,500,000 to be paid 
by Great Britain for the vessels destroyed. The treaty 
established as definite principles of international law the 
duty of neutrals not to allow the fitting out of belligerent 
cruisers in their ports, and of course the Americans were 
gratified at the decision in their favor by an impartial 
tribunal. But all this did , not restore the ocean com- 
merce to which Great Britain had succeeded. The dam- 
ages were a low price to pay for getting a dangerous 
commercial rival safely out of the way, and a war with 
England at that time would have been even more popu- 
lar in the United States than the treaty and the award. 
However, statesmanship happily prevailed over popular 
passion, and so the dangerous question was put finally 
at rest. 



tribunal. 



The ideas of 
peace. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

A SECOND ERA OF ECONOMIC PROGRESS. 

References. — Andrews ; The Congressional Globe ; Laugh- 
lin ; Wells : Recent Econouiic Changes. 

After the second war with England the thoughts and 
energies of the American people were turned unchecked 
to the orderly development of material resources. The 
general peace in Europe made possible a natural growth 
of society as had not been the case for a quarter cen- 
tury. The same thing occurred when the surrender of 
Lee put an end to the slavery turmoil which for another 
quarter century had distracted the public life of the 
country. To be sure, during each interval of absorbing 
strife social forces had gone on quietly as before and 
after. But their action was diverted and checked, as 
well as obscured, by the predominant excitement and by 
the grave and uncertain character of the prevailing 
issues. Peace was followed by the resumption of 
those activities which marked the period between the 
treaty of Ghent and the annexation of Texas. And so 
once more we hear of the settlement of new states, of 
improved means of transportation, of manufactures and 
foreign commerce and banking, of tariffs and currency, 
tion. And again education and philanthropy, literature and art, 

social and political reform, fill the popular interest. Only 
of course in the last three decades all has been on a 
vastly larger scale than was the state of things in the 
three decades which followed Jackson's victory at New 



A Second Era of Economic Progress. 333 

Orleans. But otherwise the general conditions are very- 
similar. 

The immediate economic effect on the South of the 
war was the almost complete destruction of prosperity. 
A large part of southern capital, estimated at $2,000,- 
000,000, was invested in slaves. By the Emancipation 
Proclamation and the thirteenth amendment this specie 
of property was — we cannot say destroyed — but trans- 
ferred from the whites to the negroes themselves. This 
alone sufficed to reduce thousands of families from afflu- 
ence to poverty. Then foreign commerce had been 
almost entirely cut off 
for several years, so 
that the cotton crop 
had largely gone to 
waste. Banking and 
insurance capital had 
disappeared, and 
money had been re- 
place d by a paper 
currency which be- 
came worthless. More 
or less capital had 
gone into Confeder- 
ate bonds, which of 
course the result of 
the war deprived of 
all value — though a 
great part of those 
bonds were held 
abroad. Then where the armies had marched property 
of all kinds had been destroyed. And, besides the loss 
of at least 300,000 lives, many thousands more of able- 
bodied men had for years been withdrawn from produc- 




Effect of the 
war in the 
South. 



Destruction of 
values. 



James A. Garfield. 
orn, 1831 ; died, 1881. Educated at Williams 
College; lawyer; president of Hiram College, 
Ohio; major-general of volunteers in the 
Civil War ; member of Congress, 1863-80 ; 
U. S. senator, iSSo ; president of the United 
States, 1881. 



334 T^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. 



Effect of the 
war in the 

North. 



The national 
debt. 



Internal 
revenue. 



tive employment, so that when peace came, the South 
had Httle left but its people and its land. But the latter 
was in itself an inexhaustible source of wealth. And 
rarely in history have the indomitable qualities of a peo- 
ple been more brilliantly shown than in the quiet heroism 
with which the southern people accepted their defeat and 
set out patiently to restore their prosperity. 

In the North the war brought an actual inflation of 
business. The government was spending lavish sums of 
money every year. Foreign trade flowed on unchecked, 
and immigration continued. Everywhere manufactures 
and commerce thrived, and the desolation of war was 
kept from the northern borders. The lives which were 
lost in the armies were replaced, numerically at least, by 
immigration from Europe, and the destruction of prop- 
erty which war really entails, even to the victor, was 
masked by the fact that huge sums were borrowed, so 
that the loss would be repaid by future generations. 

The national debt by August, 1865, had reached the 
amount of $2,844,649,626. And this was a part of the 
money cost of maintaining the Union. But the national 
revenues throughout the contest had been steadily large, 
amounting for the four years to about $780,000,000. 
And after peace came the revenues continued to swell. 
Thus not only was the annual interest on the national 
bonds promptly paid, but considerable sums were avail- 
able each year to reduce the principal. The report of 
the secretary of the treasury on the first of December, 
1894, showed that the total debt less cash in the treasury 
had been reduced to $837,221,204.22 — being a reduc- 
tion of upwards of two thousands of millions of dollars 
in less than thirty years. 

The taxes which yielded so rich returns during war 
time were not only customs, but were many kinds of 



A Second Era of Ecoyiomic Progress. 335 



internal revenue dues as well. Besides taxes on spirits 
and malt liquors, there were stamp duties on all manner 
of business paper, on matches, on manufactured tobacco, 
license fees for peddling, and many others. With the 

end of the war these excises were reduced as speedily Reduction of 

•111 '^■''"• 

as possible, so that 

now, besides the 
bank tax, there are 
internal revenue 
dues levied only 
on liquors and to- 
bacco. 

The duties paid 
at the custom- 
houses have, as has 
been the case from 
the beginning of 
the government , 
afforded the prin- 
cipal means of fed- 
eral income. One 
of the last acts of 
President Buchan- 
an, the last Demo- 
cratic president be- 
fore the Civil War, 
was to sign the 

Morrill Tariff Act. This act raised the duties which had 
been lowered by the tariffs of 1846 and 1S57, and again 
adjusted the tariff to a system of protection. Subsequent 
amendments raised the rates still higher, and, on the 
whole, from that time to this the protective principle has 
been maintained. The Republican party as originally 
formed, or as it came out of the Civil War, was by no 




Chester A. Arthur. 
Born, 1830 ; died, i8S6. Educated at Union Col- 
lege; lawyer; quartermaster-general, state of 
New York, 1S61-2 ; collector, port of New York ; 
vice-president of the United States, t88i ; presi- 
dent, on the death of President Garfield. 



The Morrill 
tariff. 



336 The Growth of the Aincrican Nation. 



The Republi- 
cans for pro- 
tection. 



Tariff reform. 



Election of 
Cleveland, iS 



means wholly a party of protection. The main issues then 
related to the authority of the nation and to slavery. But 
the large Whig composition of the new party sufficed to 
give it a bias toward protection. After the war, how- 
ever, a considerable number of influential Republicans 
began to urge a reform of the tariff in the direction of 
free trade. It will be remembered that the Walker low 
tariff of 1846 coincided practically with the English 
movement for free trade, and the change produced by 
the Morrill Act and the subsequent amendments were a 
reaction against that tendency in this country. Congress 
modified the tariff rates somewhat in 1872 and again in 
1883. But the protective principle was untouched. 
The Democratic party, while by no means united for 
low tariff, on the whole favored a reduction, and in 
1887-88 very nearly carried an act for lower rates. It 
passed the House, but failed in the Senate. 

A prominent leader of the Republicans after the war, 
and an ardent advocate of the system of j^rotection, was 
James G. Blaine, of Maine. As speaker of the House 
of Representatives he had commanding influence in the 
party, and in 1884 he secured the presidential nom- 
ination. At the election, however, Grover Cleveland, 
the Democratic governor of New York, was chosen 
president, carrying the great state of New York and 
thus the presidency by the slender plurality of 1,100 
votes. This was the first time since Buchanan re- 
tired that a Democratic president had occupied the 
White House. Mr. Cleveland's election would have 
been impossible if the people had not become convinced 
that the war issues were finally settled. In 1887 the 
president called the attention of Congress to the grow- 
ing surplus in the treasury, resulting from the high tariff 
rates, and to what he considered to be the inequitable 



A Second Ei^a of Ecoiiomic Progress. 



337 



working of the protective system. The bill which em- 
bodied his views failed to pass, as has been seen, and at 
the presidential election of 1888 the Republicans were 
again successful. 

However, the course of President Cle\'eland resulted 
in committing the Democratic party definitely to the 
policy of low tariff. 
A considerable 
portion of the 
party, especially in 
the old Middle 
States, had stead- 
ily favored pro- 
tection. Benjamin 
Harrison of Indi- 
ana succeeded to 
the presidency in 
1889. And in the 
following year the 
Republican meas- 
ures for dealing 
with the tariff and 
the treasury sur- 
plus became laws. 
The M c K i n 1 e y 

. James G. Blaine. 

Tariff Act of 1890 Born, 1830; died, 1892. Teacher ; journalist ; niem- 

j 1 ber of Congress, 1863-77; United States senator, 

reclUCea revenue 1877-81; secretary of state, iSSi and 1S89-93 ; can- 

1 1 • ii didate for the presidency, 1S84. 

by enlargmg the 

free list, at the same time raising the rates of duty on 
many manufactured articles. And the surplus was 
further reduced by an act making still more liberal the 
already generous provisions for the pension of soldiers of 
the Civil War. The disbursements to pensioners in 
1889 were over $88,000,000, the greatest amount which 




Defeat of Cleve- 
land, 1S88. 



The McKinley 
Act, 1S90. 



338 The Growth of the American Nation. 



The sugar 
bounty. 



Free sugar. 



had up to that time been paid out for that purpose in 
any one year. The pension disbursements for 1890 
were $106,000,000, for 1891 $118,000,000, for 1892 
$141,000,000, for 1893 $158,000,000, and for 1894 
$140,000,000. The pension payments for any one of 
these last five years exceeded the whole national debt 
incurred by the two wars with England. 

Another distinctive 
feature of the Mc- 
Kinley Act was the 
sugar bounty. The 
sugar consumed in 
the United States in 
the year 1890 
amounted to nearly 
a million and a half 
of tons, of which 
only about a quarter 
of a million was do- 
mestic product. The 
protective duty on 
this article, mainly for 
the benefit of the 
Louisiana planters, 
served to raise the 
price of the whole amount consumed by the people, 
without any apparent likelihood that the domestic prod- 
uct would ever equal the home demand. On the other 
hand, to remove the duty altogether would have the 
certain effect to destroy the Louisiana industry, which 
could not compete in price with the cheap product of 
Cuba. Accordingly, the McKinley Act put sugar on 
the free list, thus reducing the price of the commodity 
and at the same time reducing the surplus in the treasury 




Grover Cleveland. 
Born, 1837. Lawyer; sheriff of Erie County, 
New York, 1871-4 ; mayor of Buffalo, N. Y., 
1S82 ; governor of New York, 1SS3-5; presi- 
dent of the United States, 1885-9, and 1893—. 



A Second Era of Economic Progress. 



339 



by many millions. Then to prevent the destruction of 
the Louisiana interest a bounty was offered from the 
treasury on all sugars and molasses, whether from cane, 
beet, maple, or sorghum, produced in the United States. 
And this was to continue for fifteen years. 

The Pension and the McKinley Acts together sufficed Political results 

. T-. 1 1 oftheMcKinley 

to reduce the surplus m the treasury. But they proved Act. 
exceedingly unpopular, and at the elections in 1890 
the Democrats carried the Lower House of Congress. 
In 1892 they had a sweeping victory in the nation, again 
electing Mr. Cleveland to the presidency and now secur- 
ing both Houses of Congress. Thus for the first time 
since 1861 the Demo- V^l^^^^^Hi. UiWip|^ 
cratic party found it 
self in control of tin 
entire executive and 
legislative branche- 
of the national go\ 
ernment. 

The result at th( 
first regular session ol 
Congress was the 
enactment of the 
Wilson Tariff Bill. 
This act lowered the 
duties in general, put 
wool, salt, and lumber 
on the free list, re- 
stored the duty on 
sugar, and repealed 

the sugar bounty provision. Another striking feature of 
this law was an elaborate provision for a tax on all incomes 
exceeding $4,000. The bill as it passed the House was 
decidedly a more positive low tariff measure than the 




Benjamin Harrison. 

Born, 1833. Educated at Miami University; 

lawyer ; brigadier-general of volunteers in 

the Civil War ; United States senator, 1881-7 ; 

president of the United States, 1889-93. 



340 The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



The income 
tax uncon- 
stitutional. 



Expansion of 
the republic. 



Immigration. 



Exclusion of 
the Chinese. 



act as it became law. Some of the Democratic sena- 
tors combined with the Republicans in that body in the 
interest of protection. President Cleveland was so dis- 
satisfied with the revenue reform character of the amended 
bill that he refused to sign it, allowing it to become a law 
by the lapse of the constitutional period of ten days. 

It may be added that the constitutionality of the in- 
come tax was attacked in the courts, and in May, 1895, 
the Supreme Court declared that it was unconstitutional 
and void. 

The great revenues which enabled the government to 
pay off the national debt at so unparalleled a rate came 
from a commerce which grew and thrived mightily. 
The last thirty years have seen an expansion of the re- 
public no greater relatively than at previous epochs, but 
its totals are such as to try the imagination. The popu- 
lation in 1890, 62,000,000, was twice that of i860. There 
has been a flood of immigration from Europe since the 
Civil War. In the single year 1882 the arrivals were 
789,000, and not far from a half million have come yearly 
since about that time. A large part of this movement of 
population has gone westward, induced by the home- 
stead policy adopted in 1862. A free farm has been a 
powerful magnet. In the Northwestern States large 
numbers of Scandinavians have settled, and they have as- 
similated American ideas rapidly. Germans also have 
come by thousands, bringing their native thrift and keen 
intelligence, and natives of the British Isles are found 
everywhere. Since the improvement of navigation has 
made ocean transportation cheap, many less desirable 
immigrants have come, and it is a question whether the 
extraordinary power of assimilation thus far displayed 
can go on forever. Certainly on the Pacific coast the 
Asiatic immigrants are not such as can be made into 



A Second Era of Economic Progress. 



341 



American citizens, and it is on that ground that their 
further importation has been restricted by law. 

One striking result of the great increase of population 
has been the addition of new states to the Union. The 
great western wilderness of i860 has now been formed 
into a cluster of thriving states. Nevada was admitted 
in 1864, Nebraska in 1867, Colorado in 1876, North and 
South Dakota, Montana, and Washington in 1889, Idaho 
and Wyoming in 1890, and Utah will be a state in 1896. 




A Grain Elevator in Chicago. 



The only territories remaining are Arizona, New Mexico, 
Oklahoma, and Alaska — the last being only partially 
organized. Alaska was the old Russian America, and 
was purchased in 1867, for $7,200,000. This is the last 
acquisition of foreign territory thus far. In 1893 the 
republic of Hawaii applied for annexation, and Presi- 
dent Harrison negotiated a treaty. But the Senate de- 
layed action until after the inauguration of Mr. Cleve- 



The territories. 



342 



The Grozvth of the American Nation. 



Railroads. 



Economic 
results. 



land, who withdrew the treaty. Hawaii was civiUzed by 
the influence of American settlers, and American capital 
dominates the islands. 

The rapid settlement of the vast region west of the 
Mississippi has been made possible by the extension of 
the railroad system. In 1869 the first through line to 
the Pacific was opened, and since then a series of such 
lines has crossed the continent. Meanwhile the rest of 
the Union has become gridironed with tracks. The 
total mileage in i860 was 30,626. In 1893 it was 177,- 
753. And the improvement lies not merely in the num- 
ber of miles of track. The capacity to move freight and 
passengers has increased far more rapidly than mileage. 
Steel, since the decade beginning with 1870, has re- 
placed iron in the rails, the roadbeds are heavier, the 
roads have fewer curves and lower gradients, bridges are 
of steel, tracks are double, cars are larger, engines more 
powerful, trains make much better time, and hundreds of 
other improvements are supplied. But the most marked 
result of all is the cheapening of transportation. The 
average cost of carrying a ton of freight one mile is a 
little less than one cent. When the Civil War broke 
out, the cost was upwards of three cents. 

This cheapening of transportation, together with im- 
proved facilities for carrying perishable articles, like fruits 
and meats, has revolutionized economic conditions. The 
whole world is brought next door, and prices of all com- 
modities have tended to become lower to the consumer. 
At the same time great areas of land have become pro- 
ductive, because they are within reach of a market, and 
hence, as has been said, the rapid settlement of what was 
the great western wilderness. 

But the New West, with its great mines, its cattle 
ranges, and wheat-fields capable of feeding the world, 



A Second Ei'a of Economic Progress. 



343 



its busy and crowded cities, its schools and libraries and 
colleges, is only one of the new sections of the republic. 
The New South is another. Gradually after the war the The New 

-' South. 



k\x 





Statue of Henry VV. Gradv, Atla.nta, Ga. 

Mr. Grady, a leading southern journalist, had a powerful influence, which he 

exerted to restore friendship between North and South. 



patient energy of the impoverished people de\'Oted to 
their rich natural resources began to ripen into abundant 
fruits. Capital began to flow southward. Cotton was 
raised with free labor in much greater quantities even 
than in the lordly days before the war. Cotton factories 



Cotton. 



A restored 



'344 The Growth of the American Nation. 

began to spring up in the midst of the staple. Mines 
of coal and iron began to be developed. Manufacturing 
towns — Birmingham and Chattanooga — great centers of 
commerce, like Atlanta — sprang up and grew like the 
great cities of the West. Above all, gradually the old 
sectional bitterness of the war began to die out. People 
North as well as South came to learn that the war and 
its issues were ended. Southern people are once more 
nation. activc and influential in national politics. The North is 

more and more disposed to realize that the peculiar 
problems of southern social life can best be worked out 
by the southern people themselves. And nowhere is 
there to-day more loyalty to the nation than in the New 
South. A new generation has grown up. Tolerance 
and kindly feeling are daily growing. Those of each 
section are learning that the others, too, fought for a 
principle — that both were heroic. And all can afford to 
forget the passions of the struggle and remember only 
the gallant deeds of the heroes in both armies. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

SOME QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 

References. — Laughlin ; The Congressional Globe ; Knox : 
United States Notes. 

When the Civil War broke out, tliere was immedi- 

.1 -1 1 r \\T ' Currency and 

ately a pressing demand lor money. War is an expen- banking! 
sive luxury, and needs ready cash in large amounts. The 
government found the treasury almost bankrupt, and at 
first was afraid to lay the heavy taxes which would have 
provided the needed income. Meanwhile gold was ex- 
ported and hoarded, and in the last days of i86i specie 
payments were suspended by the banks. That left no 
circulating medium but the notes of state banks. Ac- 
cordingly, in 1862, it was determined to issue United 
States paper demand notes which should be a legal ten- 
der. With these notes, "greenbacks" they were famil- 
iarly called, the government undertook to pay its bills. a^c't'^Flbruary'^'^ 
In the years 1862 and 1863 $450,000,000 of them were '^^-• 
issued. By that time the inevitable depreciation of such 
issues, so familiar whenever the attempt to float them is 
made, had proceeded very far, and further issue was 
stopped. Meanwhile all the fractional silver had fol- 
lowed the gold out of the country, and the government 
had to fill its place also with paper. 

By this time bonds had been provided, and their sale, 

, -111 • 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 National bank- 

together with the heavier taxes which should have at once ing law, 1863. 
been laid in 1861, enabled the treasury to meet its en- 
gagements. In 1863 an act was passed providing for 
the organization of national banks. They were required 

345 



Gold at a pre- 



Bolles, III., 141. 



346 The Grozvth of the American Nation. 

to deposit United States bonds with the treasury at 
Washington as security for currency they might issue. 
In 1865 a tax of ten per cent was laid on the currency 
of state banks. By this means that form of currency 
was forced out of circulation, and banks which wished 
the privilege of issuing currency were driven to become 
national banks. 

When the war closed gold was at a high premium. 

fnium- ' The highest point had been reached in 1864, when a 

gold dollar was worth $2.85 in paper. What this really 
meant was that a greenback dollar was worth about 
thirty-five cents in gold. But as the likelihood increased 
that the legal tender notes would one day be paid, their 
* price in gold rose. It was the desire of the secretary 
of the treasury under President Johnson, Hugh McCul- 
loch, to make immediate preparations for the resumption 
of specie payments and the payment of the debt. And 
to that end he proposed first of all to pay off the green- 
back notes. This was done gradually, until this form of 

1868. the debt had been reduced to $356,000,000. 

But the war was followed by a period of speculation 
in business. Expansion was seen on all sides, and soon 

The greenbacks there began to be an outcry against a reduction of the 
currency. To this outcry Congress responded by for- 
bidding any further payment of the demand notes, and 
so that amount ($356,000,000) has since remained 
afloat. The trouble was that people had become accus- 
tomed to use the greenbacks as money and failed to un- 
derstand that they were not money at all, but only 
promises to pay money. It is the old confusion of ideas 
which almost every generation has to have cleared up 
by having sound notions beaten into the head by hard 
experience. So far had this delusion gone that in 1874 
Congress passed a bill to increase the amount of legal 



Some Questions of the Day. 347 

tender greenbacks to $400,000,000. But President 
Grant vetoed the bill. And after efforts of the inflation- 
ists in this direction came to naught. "Fiat money," 
so far as paper was concerned, made no further head- 
way. 

But now another popular idea about the currency 
sprang up. Under the act of 1834, ^s has been seen, 
gold drove the dearer silver out of circulation. A silver 
dollar was worth more than a gold dollar, and so was 
no longer in use. And the fractional silver was only 
kept afloat by becoming mere token money, under the 
act of 1853. Ii"* 1873 an act was passed to regulate 
the currency. By this act the coinage of silver dollars The act of 1873. 
was ordered discontinued. And in 1874 the revised 
statutes of the United States limited the legal tender 
power of all silver coins to the amount of five dollars. 
It is often said that by the act of 1873 silver was demon- 
etized surreptitiously. But the act was before Congress 
two years. The debates filled many columns of the 
Co7igressional Globe. It was well understood that the 
silver dollar was to be dropped. The fact excited little 
attention, because nobody cared. In point of fact, 
neither silver nor gold was in common circulation, as 
specie payments had not yet been resumed. And gold 
had really been the measure of values for nearly forty 
years. 

That same year, 1873, marked the culmination of a The panic of 
period of over-speculation which followed the war. The ^^'^^' 
bubble burst. And a business panic like those of '37 
and '57 spread ruin far and wide. Prices of all com- 
modities fell. And people found it hard to get a simple 
living. 

But this panic at once accelerated the political move- „. 

^ '^ Cheap money. 

ment for cheap money. In the various speculative en- 



348 The Growth of the American Nation. 

terprises of the preceding years, especially in the West, 
everybody had borrowed largely. And now no one 
was making money. Land values and stocks dropped. 
Agricultural products could only be sold at a low pi'ice. 
But the principal and interest of the debts to eastern 
capitalists remained fixed. And many people began to 
think that it would be no more than right if these debts 
See p. 347. could be paid in some kind of cheaper money which 

could still be called "dollars." We have seen how the 
paper inflation bill of 1874 was killed by the veto. 

In 1875 the Republican Congress, as one of its last 
^ acts before giving way to its Democratic successor elected 

Resumption of _ o o j 

specie pay- i^ the previous year, made a law providinsf for the re- 
sumption of specie payments on the first of January, 
1879. 

In the decade besfinninsf in 1870, there was a general 

The gold stand- . . . . . 

ard in Europe. European movement in the direction of substituting a 
single gold standard for the double standard of gold and 
silver. Germany did this in 187 1. In 1874 the Latin 
Union (France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy) 
stopped the free coinage of silver, and in 1878 stopped 
its coinage altogether. Great Britain was already on 
the gold standard (since 18 16), and Holland and the 
Scandinavian countries followed in the same course. 
This widespread change was made possible by the very 
great increase in the production of gold after the dis- 
coveries in California and Australia, about the middle of 
the century. Since 1850 there has been more gold 
added to the world's stock than in all the years up to 
that date since the discovery of America. 

Thus the act of Congress of 1873 was in line with 

ofsiiver. ^^"*^^ what the rest of the world was doing. But a few years 
later silver, which had been fairly steady in price for 
many years, suddenly dropped in the London market. 



Some Questions of the Day. 349 

The demand in European states had practically ceased. 
And just then the American mines began to yield in 
enormously greater quantities. This latter cause alone 
would have caused the price of silver to fall. 

Then there was urgent pressure for the remonetization 
of silver. In 1S78 the silver dollar again became a legal The act of 1878. 
tender, and the treasury was obliged to buy a certain 
amount of silver each month and to coin it. Certificates 
were issued for the silver thus coined, and it was these 
certificates, and not the coins, which actually circulated. 
In 1890 this act was followed by another, extending still Theact of 1890. 
further the government purchases. 

In 1893 Grover Cleveland was a second time inaugu- 
rated president. And in a few days he, like Van Buren, 1893. 
was confronted with a great business panic. The steady 
purchases of silver by the government since 1878 had 
not prevented the continuous fall of the price. And in 
1893 India, which had been a great market for silver, 
also closed its mints to silver coinage. There were 
doubt and uncertainty as to the future conditions of busi- 
ness. Banks failed in great numbers. Cash seemed to 
disappear. In the midst of this distress a special session 
of Congress was convened, and the act of 1890 was re- 
pealed. But this did not rescue the country from busi- 
ness disaster. Only in 1895 are there signs of renewed 
prosperity. 

But tariffs and currency, important as they are, have Education and 
not exhausted the activities of the republic of to-day. In '■^i's^'°"- 
all lines of social life there has been growth as marked as 
in material development. The churches are strongly or- 
ganized and vigorously alive to the needs of the times. 
Schools were never so numerous or so well supported. 
The American system of free public education is firmly 
established in all the states, and in the West and South 



350 The Grozvth of the Ainerican Nation. 



The civil 

service. 



is extended to the higher education. The great state 
universities, like those of Michigan and Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, count their students by thousands. And 
the older institutions, Harvard and Yale and Columbia, 
were never so thronged as now. 

The spoils system introduced into our national admin- 
istration in Jackson's time has sufficed to demoralize 
politics in all the states. Each change of parties has 
been accompanied by a " clean sweep ' ' of federal offi- 
cials. The efficiency of public service has been lessened. 
The time of administrative officers, from the president 
down, has been largely consumed in deciding the distri- 
bution of offices among partisan followers. And at last 
the life of the chief magistrate fell a sacrifice to the perni- 
cious system. In 1880 the Republican candidate, James 
A. Garfield of Ohio, was chosen president. He was in- 
augurated in March, 1881. And in the following July , 
Garfield, 1881. while about to take the train to attend the commence- 
ment exercises of his alma mater, Williams College, the 
president was shot by a half-crazed office-seeker who 
had not succeeded in securing the appointment he de- 
sired. After a few weeks of suffering President Garfield 
died and Vice-president Arthur succeeded to his duties. 

President Grant made an effort to secure a reform in the 

The civil serv- 
ice act, 1883. civil service, but without much avail. In 1883, however, 

an act was passed which provided for a national civil 
service commission, and for the introduction of the merit 
system into a portion of the administrative departments. 
Since then considerable progress has been made in the 
extension of that system, and it now seems likely that 
the time is not distant when spoils politics will disappear. 
With the great development in complexity of social 
Labor reform, life many of the problems which are so pressing in Eu- 
rope are also just as obviously urgent here. The demo- 



Assassination of 



Some Questions of the Day. 351 



cratic trend of the age is plainly apparent everywhere, 
but nowhere more than in the democratic republic. 
And one of its most conspicuous forms is the great im- 
provement in the condition of those who work with their 
hands. Wages tend upward and hours of toil tend to 
lessen. But this is accompanied with bitter strife at 
times between employers and employed. Neither class 
has yet learned the golden secret of peaceable coopera- 
tion. 

The form which modern society is taking is more and gonial organ- 
more that of organization. Isolated attempts of capitalists 'nation, 
to transact business on a small scale are changed for 
combined action, whereby cost is reduced, efficiency is 
multiplied, and so profits are swollen. Railroad and 
telegraph lines are united in great systems. The same „ 

25 1 . Corporations 

is done with many forms of manufacturing. And, finally, and trusts, 
rival companies have combined in the shape of trusts for 
the elimination of excessive competition. Among labor- 
ing men the same process is apparent. ' ' Unions ' ' and 
"orders" are numerous, and not infrequently attempts 

_ ^ -^ _ _ Labor unions. 

are made at their combination into still more inclusive 
associations. The result of organization among work- 
ingmen has been on the whole a gain, although too fre- 
quently unwise leadership has precipitated needless and 
costly strikes. And at times these have led to riots 
which it has taken military force to put down. 

Another very striking form of modern life is the aggre- ^^^ develop- 
gation of people in cities. This is distinctively an urban ment ofcmes. 
age. The rapidity with which transportation and the 
transmission of intelligence are effected has made it pos- 
sible for masses to live close together. And the indus- 
trial arts which modern inventions have created make 
this condensing of population profitable and necessary. 
Accordingly the towns and cities have far outstripped 



352 The Growth of the American Nation. 



Great increase 
in urban popu- 
lation. 



Failure in our 
methods in 
governing 

cities. 



The temperance 
reform. 



the rural communities in the present century. At the 
time of the first census (1790) only about three per 
cent of the American people lived in cities. There were 
only six cities with a population exceeding 8,000. Phil- 
adelphia was the metropolis, with 42,000 people, and 
New York came next with 33,000. In 1890 there were 
437 cities with 8,000 or more, containing in all twenty- 
nine per cent of the whole population of the country. 
New York had a million and a half people, and Chicago 
and Philadelphia each over a million. And the rapidity 
of growth is as extraordinary. Chicago had 4,000 peo- 
ple in 1840, less than 30,000 in 1850, 109,000 in i860, 
nearly 300,000 in 1870, half a million in 1880, over a 
million in 1890. Minneapolis, Omaha, Denver, are 
great and beautiful cities to-day. Before the Civil War 
they hardly existed. 

Our frame of government was devised for a rural pop- 
ulation. When applied to the crowded masses of a 
great city like New York it has not worked to perfection. 
Corruption and inefficiency have been too conspicuous 
in nearly all our large urban communities. Organized 
gangs of plunderers, masquerading under the name of 
national political parties, have seized city government 
and disgraced the American name by dishonesty and 
mismanagement. There is no problem more grave than 
that of rescuing civic life from this corrupt and corrupt- 
ing influence. 

Drunkenness is a vice apparently as old as human 
society. In the present century there has been a great 
and determined movement for its suppression. This 
has at first taken the direction of mere moral suasion 
addressed to individuals. But later it has entered public 
life, and in some shape is embodied in the legislation of 
many states. Some, like Maine, have prohibited the 



Some Questions of the Day. 



353 



manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors to be used 
as beverages. Others, like Minnesota, have high license 
laws — allowing liquors to be sold, but exacting a license 
fee of $r,ooo in large cities and $500 in small ones. 
South Carolina has enacted a state monopoly of dis- 
pensing this kind of merchandise, thus insuring liquors 
against adulteration and at the same time making it pos- 
sible to regulate the sale easily. The whole question is 
made more difficult by the fact that so many people of 



High licenses. 




The Brooklyn Bridge. 



European birth and education ha\'e been added to our European 
number. With them the use of wines and malt liquors '^"stoms. 
is accompanied with quite different results and ideas 
from those to which Americans are accustomed. The 
American saloon is an institution indigenous to our soil, The saloon, 
like potatoes and tobacco. But it has hardly proved a 
blessing. 

These are but a {^w of the many social questions 
which are crowding upon us. They need for their settle- • 
ment the ripest wisdom which can be attained. 



354 '^^^^ Growth of the American Nation. 



Foreign policy. 



The French in 
Mexico. 



A new inter- 
national 
position. 



To-morrow. 



Meanwhile the United States is a nation among na- 
tions, and its foreign relations are often of grave inter- 
est. The Monroe Doctrine has become a well-settled 
principle. Since the destruction of slavery there is no 
longer a disposition to grasp at territorial acquisition at 
the expense of adjacent powers. But, on the other hand, 
the great republic cannot permit its weaker neighbors 
to be oppressed by any European injustice. While the 
Civil War was absorbing all our energies, France, under 
the Second Empire, invaded Mexico and set up an im- 
perial government in that republic, with Maximilian of 
Austria on the throne. The United States steadily pro- 
tested against this proceeding, but without avail. In 
1865, however, the Civil War was ended, and a great 
veteran army was available. The courteous remon- 
strances of the United States thereafter had more weight 
at Napoleon's foreign office, and after a decent interval 
the French armies were withdrawn from Mexico. The 
empire of Maximilian at once fell, and that unhappy 
prince was captured and shot. 

The world is narrower than it was in Jefferson's time. 
Steam and electricity bind the nations together. And so 
we cannot be indifferent to what is going on across the 
seas. "Peace and honest friendship with all nations, 
entangling alliances with none, " is a maxim from which 
we shall not be likely to depart. But as one of the 
great powers we owe something to the advance of 
humanity throughout the globe. We are creating a 
modern navy for our protection against aggression. We 
shall not use it to oppress others. But it, like the armies 
of 1865, will give weight to our opinions in international 
questions. 

And as the century draws to its close we realize that 
we are no longer colonies ; we are no longer commer- 



Some Questions of the Day. 



355 



cially dependent on the whims of European beUigerents, 
as in the time of the Napoleonic wars ; we are no longer 
provincially dependent on European opinion, as before 
our own Civil War. As a nation the republic has ripened The republic 
into mature life. And at the same time we see plainly "'^'"'■^• 
that the work which lies before us is even more momen- 
tous than any which this eventful century of ours has 
wrought. 







The United States Capitol at Washington. 



INDEX. 



Abolitionists, 275, 282-3, 291. 

Acadians, 45. 

Adams, John, 103, 126, 131-2. 

Adams, John Quincy, 1S9, 191, 200. 

Alabama Claims, 331. 

Albany conference, 84. 

Alien and Sedition Laws, 135. 

America, 15, 19, 20. 

American neutrality, 120. 

American representation, 72. 

Americus Vespucius, 20, note, 22. 

Appointing; power, 105. 

Bancroft, George, 56, 267. 

Bank of the United States, 112, 195, 

237. 252. 
Bell, John, 307. 
Berlin decree, 167. 
Blaine, James G., 336. 
Blockades, 166. 
Boston, 34, 78. 
Braddock, 48. 
Brazil, 22. 
Breckinridge, 30S. 
Brook Farm, 266. • 

Bryant, William CuUen, 267. 
Buchanan, James, 304-5. 
Burgoyne, 81. 
Burr, Aaron, 136, 216. 
Cabinet organized, 105. 
Cabot, John, 22. 

Calhoun, J. C, 193, 227, 231, 247. 
California, 288, 292, 301. 
Carolinas, 32, 325. 
" Carpet-bag " government, 325. 
Cartier, 40. 
Cass, Lewis, 291. 
Champlain, 40. 
Christendom in the fifteenth century, 

16. 
Cities, 143- 351- 



Civil service, 156, 216, 226, 350. 
Civilization, in fifteenth century, 18 ; 

in colonies, 59-67. 
Clarke, George Rogers, 82, 83, note, 

90. 
Clay, Henry, 192, 200, 244, 286, 294. 
Cleveland, Grover, 336, 337, 339. 
Climate, effect of, 26. 
Clinton, De Witt, 208. 
Colleges, 58. 

Colonization, 17, 24, 26, 30, 37, 43. 
Columbus, iS-20. 
Compromise of 1S50, 293, 294, 301. 
Connecticut, 35, 275. 
Constitutional construction, 124, 152, 

154, 214, 232. 
Constitutional Convention, 93, 276. 
Continental Congress, 79, 85, 86. 
Cooper, J. F., 267. 
Cornwallis, S3. 
Corporations, 259. 
Cotton, 277-8, 343. 
County system, 219. 
Crawford, 200. 
Cumberland Road, 204. 
Cunard, 296. 

Currency, 87, 235-8, 300, 345-9. 
Curtis, George W., 266. 
Da Gama, 18. 
Dallas, A. J., 193, 195. 
Dallas, Geo. M., 2S7. 
Davis, Jefterson, 309. 
Debt, national, 107-10, 155-6, 239, 334. 
Delaware. 66. 
Detroit, 175. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 302, 311. 
Dred Scott case, 305-6, 307. 
Dutch, 25, 37, 46, 56. 
Education, 57, 218, 349. 
Emancipation Proclamation, 314. 



358 



Index. 



Embargo, 122, 169, 206. 

Emerson, R. W., 267. 

English colonial system, 61-2. 

English settlements, 23, 26, 29. 

English settlers, 31, 42, 68. 

Era of good feeling, 1S9. 

Erie Canal, 208, 217. 

Excise, III. 

Federalist party, 123-33, 137-8. i47. 

159- 
Fisheries, 60, 116. 
Florida, 283, 301. 
Fort Sumter, 310, 313. 
France, trouble with, 132. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 59, 68, 71, 84. 
Free Soil party, 291, 301, 304. 
French and English, 43, 47. 
French in Mexico, 354. 
French Revolution, iiS, 132, 138. 
French settlements, 23, 26, 40. 
French settlers, 24, 42. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 293, 294, 301. 
Fulton, Robert, 207, 295. 
Gage, 79. 

Gallatin, Albert, 155. 
Garfield, J. A., 333, 350. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 282. 
Genet, 120-1. 
George IIL, 73. 
Georgia, 32. 

Ghent, treaty of, 181, 189. 
Grady, H. W., 343. 
Grant, U. S.,313, 325. 
Greeley, Horace, 267, 328. 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 290. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 106, 107, 1 10-15, 

129, 134, 147. 190- 
Harrison, Benjamin, 337. 
Harrison, William Henry, 177, 179, 

251-4. 
Hartford Convention, 273. 
Harvard, 34, 58. 
Hawthorne, 266. 
Hayes, R. B., 330. 
Hudson, Henry, 37. 
Huguenots, 32, 56. 
Illinois, 158. 

Immigration, 119, 144, 340. 
Impressment of seamen, 122. 
Income tax, 340. 
Indians, 20, 28, 82. 



Indies, 18, 20, 37, 117. 

Internal improvements, 202-9. 

Inventions, 143, 277, 295, 299. 

Irving, Washington, 267. 

Jackson, Andrew, 192, 200, 210, 222-5. 

Jamestown, 30. 

Jay, John, 106, 123, 147, 216, 218. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 105, 125, 126, 136-7, 

144-5, 148, 159-63. 169-70. 204. 
Johnson, Andrew, 323. 
Joliet, 41. 
Kansas, 302-3. 
Kentucky, 116, 139, 142, 152. 
Ku Klux Klan, 327. 
La Salle, 41. 
Lee, R. E., 312, 315, 322. 
Lexington, 79. 
Liberal Republicans, 32S. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 307, 322, 323. 
Literature, 266. 
Local government, 213-23. 
London Company, 29. 
Longfellow, H. W., 267. 
Louisburg, 45, 48, 49. 
Louisiana, 49, 153, 278-9. 
Lovejoy, E. P., 283. 
Madison, James, 182. 
Magellan, 20. 
Maine, 35, 280. 

Manufactures, 115, 192, 234, 295. 
Marquette, 41. 
Marshall, John, 133, 157, 240. 
Maryland, 31, 90. 
Mayflower, zi- 
McKinley Act, 337-9. 
Mexican War, 288. 
Missouri Compromise, 196, 276, 293, 

303- 
Monroe Doctrine, 126, 197. 
Monroe, James, 191. 
Morse, 298. 
National banks, 345. 
Naturalization Act, 135. 
Navigation Act, 61. 
Navy department, 163. 
New Hampshire, 35, 275. 
New Jersey plan, 94. 
New Orleans, 178. 
New Sweden, 39. 
New York, 38, 214-18, 275. 
Newspapers, 60, 267, 299. 



Index. 



359 



Non-intercourse, 171. 

Northwest Territory, 139. 

Nullification, 230-3, 269. 

Ohio, 140, 158. 

Orders in Council, 166, 167, 175. 

Ordinance of 1787, 275. 

Oregon, 2S6. 

Panics, 194, 241, 306, 347, 349. 

Paper money, 87, 92, 345. 

Paris, treaty of, 49. 

Pennsylvania, 36, 275. 

Perry, Oliver Hazard, 179. 

Pierce, Franklin, 302. 

Pilgrims, 33. 

Piiickney, C. C, 132, 136, 146. 

Plymouth Company, 33. 

Political parties, 118, 123-33, i45. iSo, 

190, 245, 291,301,304. 
Polk, James K., 2S5. 
Population, 55, 63, 158, 295, 29S. 
Portuguese, 21, 25. 
Quebec, 40, 47, 49. 
Quebec Act, 78. 
Queenstown, 176. 
Railroads, 297, 342. 
Reconstruction, 321. 
Religion, 57, 261, 264, 349. 
Rhode Island, 34, 97, 275. 
Ryswick, treaty of, 47. 
Salem, 34. 

Scott, Winfield, 289, 301. 
Secession, 230, 309. 
Seward, W. H., 216, 247 
Sewing machine, 299. 
Slaves, 31, 55, 95, 273-Si, 290, 294, 305-8, 

321. 
Social life, 61-5, 127, 144, 258. 
Socialism, 265. 
Spanish Americans, 197. 
Spanish settlements, 25. 
Specie circular, 243. 
Spoils system, 216, 226, 250. 
Stamp Act, 70, 75, 79. 
State rights, 273-81, 310. 



Steamboats, 207, 295. 

Suffrage, 128, 215, 260,327. 

Taney, R. B., 240. 

Tariffs, 106, 190, 193, 196, 210, 225, 287, 

306, 335- 
Taylor, Zachary, 288, 291. 
Telegraph, electric, 298. 
Temperance, 265, 352. 
Tennessee, 116, 139, 142, 173, 325. 
Texas, 257, 284, 285, 286, 301, 325. 
Tilden,S.J., 329. 
Tobacco, 27-8, 31, 61. 
Town-meetings, 66, 219. 
Townshend, Charles, 69. 
Tripoli, 163. 
Tyler, John, 248, 254-6. 
Utrecht, treaty of, 47. 
Van Buren, Martin, 222, 22S, 240, 248, 

285. 
Vermont, 116, 275. 
Verrazano, 40. 
Virginia, 29, 325. 
War, Civil, 313-15. 
War, Mexican, 288. 
War of 1S12, 173-83. 
Washington City, no, 177, 189. 
Washington, George, So, 93, 103, 125, 

127, 12S, 133. 
Washington, treaty of, 331. 
Wayne, Anthony, 141. 
Webster, Daniel, 245, 293. 
Weed, Thurlow, 247. 
West \'irgiiiia, 322. 
Western lands, 89, 139, 205. 
Whig party, 245, 291, 302. 
Whisky Rebellion, 112. 
Whitney, Eli, 142, 277. 
Williams, Roger, 34. 
Wilmot proviso, 290. 
Wilson Act, 339. 
Writs of assistance, 75. 
X Y Z papers, 133, 134. 
Vale College, 58. 
Yorktown, battle of, 83. 




MAP SHOWING 

TERRITORY ACQUIRED 

BY THE 

UNITED STATES 

FROM 
1783-1895 



Lunijitude West from Greenuirli 







;^fi;t;^; 













